Expensive to get wrongZambia

Zambia: no language reaches half the country

No single language reaches half of Zambia. The widest is Bemba at 34%, then Nyanja at 19% and English at 16%. 1 language holds official status nationally or in at least one region.

Which language leads on the pack decides how much of the market can read what it is buying.

72 of a possible 90Tier B, systematic first-party observation. Nothing at this tier is allowed past 90, however good it looks.

Verified September 9, 2026Rechecked every 1095 days, next by September 8, 2029.

Structure

Held since January 1, 2020How the market is physically or commercially arranged. The earliest date we are willing to say this held. It may well have been true before that; we do not backdate a record past the evidence we have read. Supported, version 1.

This entry is wrong if

A national census or a nationally representative survey puts the share of Zambia that speaks Bemba outside 29% to 39%.

Written before the record was published, not after. If you can show this, send it to hello@tryorbt.com and the correction goes on the record with the entry.

Evidence

Tier Bofficial-statisticn = 11
Unicode Consortium: Unicode CLDR 48 supplemental data
CLDR territoryInfo lists 11 languages for this market with a population share.
Read 2026-08-10 · CC BY · about this source

History

v1createdAugust 10, 2026
Derived from the label-language family on 2026-08-10.

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Cite this entry

“Zambia: no language reaches half the country”, The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0, entry omr:zm:surface:label-language, retrieved September 9, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/zm--surface--label-language. Dataset: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22679129

Orbt, "Zambia: no language reaches half the country," Orbt Market Index, entry omr:zm:surface:label-language, verified September 9, 2026, https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/zm--surface--label-language.

@misc{orbt-zm-surface-label-language,
  title        = {Zambia: no language reaches half the country},
  author       = {{Orbt}},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22679129},
  note         = {The Orbt Market Index 0.1.0 (dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22679129), entry omr:zm:surface:label-language. Verified 2026-09-09},
  howpublished = {\url{https://tryorbt.com/markets/entry/zm--surface--label-language}},
  license      = {Orbt Index Public Licence. Free to quote and cite; not to redistribute}
}

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Evidence

History

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