- ISO 3166
LS- Main language + region
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.
Market summary
Each figure carries its own world scale, so it reads without a second market beside it.
People online
1.2M
0%world median 81%100%
52% of 2.2M people use the internet, per the World Bank's 2024 figure. Estimated by multiplying CLDR population by that share.
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 spending power, not revenue.
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 another language.
What people speak
Shares include second languages, so totals can exceed 100%.
Most spoken in Lesotho
share of 2.2M people
- Southern Sothoofficial98%2.2M
- Englishofficial27%601.4K
- Zulu14%311.9K
- Swati2.4%53.5K
- Xhosa1%22.1K
Filled bars are nationally official languages. Bars are scaled to the largest language rather than to 100%.
CLDR records Southern Sotho in 2 territories and 7M speakers in total; Lesotho holds 31% of them, and the rest come with the same translation. The Southern Sotho profile maps the whole footprint.
Day-one requirements
What the interface needs for the main language spoken here (st-LS).
Plural categories
2
Word-forms a translator writes for counted text, like English's "1 item" and "2 items".
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