- ISO 3166
LS- Primary locale
st-LS- Currency
- ZAR · South African Rand
- Region
- not grouped
Lesotho
Lesotho has 2.2M people, and 1.2M of them are online. Southern Sotho is the most widely spoken language at 98%, one of 5 languages CLDR lists here. Southern Sotho and English are official nationally. A product shipping here defaults to st-LS.
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
1.2M
0%world median 81%100%
52% of 2.2M 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
$1,089
Higher than 8% 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
62%
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
5
Southern Sotho 98% · English 27% · Zulu 14%
Languages CLDR records here with a share of 0.1% or more. 2 of them are official nationally.
English proficiency
—
Not in the EF EPI 2025 table. Absent is not the same as low.
Adult literacy
90%
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 Lesotho
share of 2.2M people
- Southern Sothoofficial98%2.2M
- Englishofficial27%601.4K
- Zulu14%311.9K
- Swati2%53.5K
- Xhosa1.0%22.1K
Filled bars are nationally official languages. Every bar is drawn against the largest language rather than against 100%, so a 1% language stays visible.
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 st-LS, 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
2026 Mmesa 21
Short: 2026-04-21
Time
6:30 PM
Week starts Mon
Currency
R 1,234.56
1,234.56 in ZAR · South African Rand