- ISO 3166
KE- Primary locale
sw-KE- Currency
- KES · Kenyan Shilling
- Region
- EMEA · SSA
Kenya
Kenya has 58.2M people, and 20.4M of them are online. Swahili is the most widely spoken language at 66%, one of 17 languages CLDR lists here. Swahili and English are official nationally. A product shipping here defaults to sw-KE.
At a glance
Each figure is drawn against the rest of the world, so a number means something before you have any other market to compare it with.
People online
20.4M
0%world median 81%100%
35% of 58.2M people use the internet, per the World Bank's 2024 figure. CLDR population multiplied by that share, so read it as an estimate rather than a headcount.
Income per person
$2,363
Higher than 20% of 213 territories
GDP per capita in current US dollars, World Bank Open Data, most recent reported year. A rough guide to what people can spend, not what your product will earn.
Can pay online
90%
0%world median 71%100%
Adults aged 15 and over holding a bank or mobile-money account, World Bank Global Findex 2024. Below half means a card-only checkout excludes most of the market.
Languages
17
Swahili 66% · English 19% · Kikuyu 17%
Languages CLDR records here with a share of 0.1% or more. 2 of them are official nationally.
English proficiency
593
Very lowVery high
High proficiency on the EF EPI 2025 scale. The sample is self-selected online test takers, so treat it as colour for a discussion. It never enters any score on this site.
Adult literacy
87%
0%world median 95%100%
Share of adults who can read, as recorded in CLDR territory data. Low literacy shifts a product toward icons, audio, and video before it shifts toward another language.
What people speak
Shares count first and second languages, so they sum past 100% and one bilingual person is counted twice.
Most spoken in Kenya
share of 58.2M people
- Swahiliofficial66%38.4M
- Englishofficial19%11.1M
- Kikuyu17%9.9M
- Luyia11%6.4M
- Luo10%5.7M
- Kamba8%4.4M
- Kalenjin8%4.4M
- Gusii5%2.9M
Filled bars are nationally official languages. Every bar is drawn against the largest language rather than against 100%, so a 1% language stays visible. 9 more languages sit below the top eight, at 11.6% combined.
One country understates a language. CLDR records diaspora too, so a language usually reaches further than any single page shows. The language profiles show each one's full footprint.
What you would ship
Configuration for day one, computed live with Intl.* against sw-KE, the dominant locale for this market.
Plural categories
2
Standard. Use Intl.PluralRules for the few cases that matter.
Script family
Latin
Default system fonts cover this script on all major platforms.
Reading direction
Left-to-right
Standard. Use dir='auto' on user-generated content fields.
Date
21 Aprili 2026
Short: 21/04/2026
Time
18:30
Week starts Sun
Currency
Ksh 1,234.56
1,234.56 in KES · Kenyan Shilling