Country rankings
Dutch Speaking Countries
Netherlands has the highest Primary Language Speakers (16,431,360), followed by South Africa (6,860,000) and Belgium (6,215,000). Namibia has the lowest (220,000).
5 of 235 countries
Primary Language Speakers
Darker means higher. Click a place to highlight it.
Loading map…
All 5 ranked
Highest first.
Distribution Median and middle halfThe median is the middle value: half of places are above it, half below. The middle half is the range holding the central 50% of places.More in the glossary →
Each dot is one country; the lines mark the median and the middle half.
Median
6,215,000
Middle half 325K – 6.9M
Average
6,010,272
5 countries
Highest
16,431,360
Netherlands
Lowest
220,000
Namibia
Data
Click a column to sort, a row to highlight that place on the charts.
8 countries · # = rank by Primary Language Speakers
| # | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Netherlands | Yes | Dutch | Official | 16,431,360 | 687,000 |
| 2 |  South Africa | Debatable | Afrikaans | Co-official (one of 12) | 6,860,000 | 10,300,000 |
| 3 |  Belgium | Yes | Dutch | Co-official (w French, German) | 6,215,000 | 1,469,000 |
| 4 |  Suriname | Yes | Dutch | Official (w 8 recognized indigenous) | 325,000 | 215,000 |
| 5 |  Namibia | Debatable | Afrikaans | Recognized (English is official) | 220,000 | — |
| — |  Curacao | Yes | Dutch | Co-official (w English, Papamiento) | — | — |
| — |  Aruba | Yes | Dutch | Co-official (w Papiamento) | — | — |
| — |  Sint Maarten | Yes | Dutch | Co-official (w English) | — | — |
What correlates with Primary Language Speakers?
Not enough places to compare
Correlations need at least 10 countries with data; this metric covers 5.
Quick answers
- Which country has the highest Primary Language Speakers?
- Netherlands has the highest Primary Language Speakers, at 16,431,360, followed by South Africa (6,860,000) and Belgium (6,215,000).
- Which country has the lowest Primary Language Speakers?
- Namibia has the lowest Primary Language Speakers, at 220,000.
- What is the median Primary Language Speakers across countries?
- The median is 6,215,000 across the 5 countries with data.
- Where does this dutch speaking countries data come from?
- Rankodex compiles it from World Population Review and the primary sources it cites: Dutch language - Britannica; List of countries and territories where Afrikaans or Dutch are official languages - Wiki; Suriname - Wiki; Namibia - Wiki.