Languages of Mali

Common card · No. 309889

Mali is a multilingual country of about 21.9 million people. The languages spoken there reflect ancient settlement patterns, migrations, and its long history. Ethnologue counts more than 80 languages. The 2023 Mali constitution declares "all national languages" to be official languages without naming those languages. The Bambara language practically serves as the country's lingua franca as 80% of the country speaks the Bambara language. French is the working language. In 2024, the Francophone population of Mali represents 20%, which is approximately 4,884,000 people. Among them, 6.4% (around 1,491,000 individuals) speak French as their first language. Additionally, approximately 3,329,144 people, or 13.6% of the total population of 24,479,000, use French as a second language.

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