Sugar cane sales. (Nyole, Uganda)

People and Languages

There are 48 languages. The main ones are:

• English (official)
• Ganda or Luganda
• other Niger-Congo languages
• Nilo-Saharan languages
• Swahili
• Arabic

About 90% of Uganda's inhabitants live in rural areas. Approximately 70% of the people speak one of the Bantu languages Approximately 16% of the total number of Bantu speaking peoples live in Uganda. The main Bantu ethnic groups, all of whom live in the southern half of the country, are the:

• Baganda or Ganda (18% of total population)
• Soga
• Ankole
• Nyoro
• Toro

Other language groups in Uganda are the:

• Western Nilotic (principally the Acholi, Lango, and Alur) who live in the north (15% of the population).
• Eastern Nilotic (mainly the Karamojong, Pokot, Teso, and Turkana) who live in the northeast (10% of the population).
• Sudanic (the Lugbara) who live in the northwest (5% of the population).

For a full listing of languages in Uganda go to the Ethnologue.

Between 1980 and 1985, thousands of refugees (mostly Tutsis) from Rwanda and Zaïre (now the Congo) settled in Uganda.