| Chapter 2: | Linguistic and Demographic Profile of Senegal |
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region), and Bayale (Bayot)—were being codified when this research was underway in 2008 and 2009.
In this plethora of languages scattered all over the country, the Wolof language has established itself as the lingua franca; more than 85% of the Senegalese population speak and understand Wolof (Direction de la Prévision et des Statistiques, 1993, p. 24). According to the Direction de la Prévision et des Statistiques (1993), 67.2% of the Senegalese population speak Wolof as their first language (table 2). The supremacy of Wolof is evident in regions such as Louga, Diourbel, Dakar, and Kaolack, where it is spoken by 71.8%, 71.5%, 67.2%, and 66.8% of the population, respectively. Wolof is also an important second language at the national level: 24.1% of the population speak it as their second language (table 2), with even higher rates in Fatick (44.2%), Thiès (28.7%), and Ziguinchor (28.2%) (Direction de la Prévision et des Statistiques, 1993, pp. 25–27).
Table 2. The first six national languages spoken as first and second languages.
| Language | Spoken as First Language | Spoken as Second Language |
| Wolof | 67.2 | 24.1 |
| Pulaar | 13.8 | 2.3 |
| Serrere | 7.9 | 1.5 |
| Jola | 4.1 | 0.5 |
| Mandinka | 2.0 | 0.6 |
| Soninké | 1.0 | (-) |
| Other languages | 4.0* | 71** |
| 100 | 100 |
Source. Direction de la Prévision et des Statistiques (1993, pp. 26–27).
Note. (-) indicates that the percentage is negligible.
* People who speak languages other than those listed as their first language.
** Includes people who do not have a second language and people who do have a second language, but one other than those listed.