- ISO 3166
SO- Main language + region
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.
Market summary
Each figure carries its own world scale, so it reads without a second market beside it.
People online
3.6M
0%world median 81%100%
28% of 13M people use the internet, per the World Bank's 2024 figure. Estimated by multiplying CLDR population by that share.
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 spending power, not revenue.
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 another language.
What people speak
Shares include second languages, so totals can exceed 100%.
CLDR records Somali in 6 territories and 18.6M speakers in total; Somalia holds 54% of them, and the rest come with the same translation. The Somali profile maps the whole footprint.
Day-one requirements
What the interface needs for the main language spoken here (so-SO).
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
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