South African Ethnic Groups and Languages
Until 1991, South African law divided the population into four major racial categories. The first were Black Africans, which the Nguni and Sotho groups account for 90% of the Black population. Black population accounts 75% of the South Africa's entire population. The second are Whites who account for about 13% of the population. The third are the Indians who account for around 3 % and the last are the Coloreds who are mixed White and Black descent and account for 9% of the population. Although the South African law of racial categories has been abolished, many South Africans still view themselves according to these categories. The black population consists of several groups: Khoi-San, Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele, Sotho, Shangaan and Venda these are just a few. The biggest groups are Zulus (21 %), Xhosas (17 %) and the Sotho (15%). Some smaller groups are the Tswana, Venda, Ndebele, Swasi, and Pedi. The Khoi-Sans are originally hunter-gatherers who have lived on the land for a long time.
There are eleven official languages in South Africa. Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu.
The most common language spoken by South Africans is Zulu, 24 percent of South Africans speak Zulu, followed by Xhosa, 18 percent, and Afrikaans, 13 percent. English is only the sixth-most common home language in the country, but is understood in most urban areas and is the dominant language in government and the media.
The majority of South Africans speak a language from one of the two principal branches of the Bantu languages represented in South Africa the Sotho-Tswana branch (Sotho, Northern Sotho, Tswana), or the Nguni branch (Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele). For each of the two groups, the languages within that group are for the most part intelligible to a native speaker of any other language within that group.
