Which country has 16 official languages, among the most in the world? Zimbabwe has 16 officially recognised languages.
Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution lists Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa. The provision was a significant change from the country’s earlier language arrangements, which gave English a particularly dominant official and administrative role.
English remains especially important in government, education, business and the courts. Shona and Ndebele are the most widely spoken indigenous languages, while the constitutional list recognizes communities whose languages had received less institutional attention. The Constitution requires state institutions to treat the official languages equitably and to promote them.
Zimbabwe is sometimes confused with South Africa, which has 11 official languages, or India, whose Constitution recognizes 22 scheduled languages but has two languages for Union-level official purposes. Switzerland has four national languages. The number 16 refers specifically to Zimbabwe’s constitutional list, not to the number of languages spoken there overall; Zimbabwe has additional minority and regional languages as well.