ISO 3166
SO
Primary locale
so-SO
Currency
SOS · Somali Shilling
Region
SSA

Somalia

Somalia has 13M people, and 3.6M of them are online. Somali is the most widely spoken language at 78%, one of 4 languages CLDR lists here. Somali and Arabic are official nationally. A product shipping here defaults to so-SO.

SomaliArabicSSA

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

3.6M

0%world median 81%100%

28% of 13M 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

$661

Higher than 3% 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

39%

0%world median 71%100%

Adults aged 15 and over holding a bank or mobile-money account, World Bank Global Findex 2014. Below half means a card-only checkout excludes most of the market.

Languages

4

Somali 78% · Arabic 34% · Swahili 2%

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

38%

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 Somalia

share of 13M people

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 so-SO, 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

Abriil 21, 2026

Short: 21/04/26

Time

6:30 GD

Week starts Mon

Currency

S 1,235

1,234.56 in SOS · Somali Shilling