The vast majority of languages spoken in Zaire are Bantu derivatives. Only in the north have other language groups been represented. Adamawa-Eastern languages are spoken in the entire northern portion of Zaire, interspersed in the east along the Uele River with Central Sudanic languages. In the far northeast (from Lake Albert north) the few Eastern Sudanic languages spoken in Zaire are heard, interspersed with Central Sudanic, AdamawaEastern , and an occasional Bantu language. Crude estimates of the number of speakers of these language divisions have cited 80 percent of the population as speakers of Bantu languages. The remaining 20 percent may be divided, in declining numbers of speakers, among people speaking Adamawa-Eastern, Central Sudanic, and Eastern Sudanic languages.

Data as of December 1993