What Languages Are Spoken in Belize? The 2022 Census Counts
Verified on 14 November 2026 on the Statistical Institute of Belize’s 2022 census Key Findings Report and census workbook, the Belize Tourism Board’s fact sheet and the About Belize page of the Consulate of Belize in Los Angeles.
English is Belize’s official language, according to the Belize Tourism Board (“Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language.”) and the Belize consulate in Los Angeles. In the 2022 census, the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) counted 368,924 persons aged 4 years or older, of whom 75.5% spoke English, 54.0% Spanish and 49.0% Creole. SIB’s report then lists Maya Ketchi (6.3%), Maya Mopan (3.9%), German (3.1%) and Garifuna (2.0%). The shares are of people aged 4 and over who reported speaking each language. People could report more than one; by our arithmetic, the English, Spanish and Creole counts alone add up to more than the whole population aged 4 and over.
Who speaks which language, 2022 census
| Language (SIB’s label) | Persons aged 4+ who speak it (Table 7) | Share of persons aged 4+ (SIB report) | District with the most speakers (our reading of Table 7) |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 278,390 | 75.5% | Belize, 91,357 |
| Spanish | 199,393 | 54.0% | Cayo, 63,882 |
| Creole | 180,792 | 49.0% | Belize, 77,602 |
| Maya Ketchi | 23,315 | 6.3% | Toledo, 16,674 |
| Maya Mopan | 14,479 | 3.9% | Stann Creek, 6,715 |
| German | 11,294 | 3.1% | Cayo, 3,473 (Corozal 3,464) |
| Garifuna | 7,481 | 2.0% | Stann Creek, 4,382 |
| Other | 2,475 | none printed | Orange Walk, 1,676 |
| Maya Yucatec | 1,822 | none printed | Cayo, 1,092 |
| Chinese | 1,420 | none printed | Belize, 409 |
| Hindi | 542 | none printed | Belize, 250 |
| Cannot speak | 716 | none printed | Belize, 194 |
SIB calls Belize “a multi-lingual society where several languages are spoken among persons 4 years or older”, and names English, Spanish and Creole as the three dominant languages, “readily spoken across most administrative districts”.
English since 2010
SIB’s report says that between the 2010 and 2022 censuses “there was noteworthy growth in the percentage of persons who spoke English, the percentage increasing from 62.9% to 75.5%”, with a smaller increase for Creole. It adds that Hindi, Chinese and German, though “less dominant and spoken by ethnic minority groups”, are also spoken readily across most districts.
The consulate’s page puts the official language and the everyday one side by side: “While English is the official language of Belize, Kriol is the language that we all speak.” SIB’s tables spell it Creole; the consulate writes Kriol, and gives Gud Mawnin (Kriol) and Buiti Binafi (Garifuna) for good morning. It also names Spanish, Garifuna, Maya-Kekchi, Maya Mopan, Mandarin and German among the languages spoken in the country.
District by district
SIB’s report names the districts where a language other than English is dominant:
- Spanish: 82.5% in Corozal and 83.6% in Orange Walk.
- Maya Ketchi: 47.0% in Toledo.
- Creole: 43.9% in Stann Creek.
- The two Mayan languages, in the report’s words: 24.1% in Stann Creek and 62.4% in Toledo.
- German: 8.2% in Corozal, 6.7% in Orange Walk and 3.1% in Cayo.
SIB’s Table 3.8 spreads each language’s speakers across the six districts as percentages, so it reads as where each language’s speakers live (our reading): 58.6% of Garifuna speakers in Stann Creek District, 71.5% of Maya Ketchi speakers in Toledo, and 42.9% of Creole speakers in Belize District. Cayo, where Table 7 counts the most Spanish speakers, is the district SIB’s population tables put San Ignacio/Santa Elena in; our San Ignacio and Cayo page covers its tours and sites. The census itself, and how it counted the whole population, is on our Belize population page.
What the census and the other sources don’t publish
On the files and pages we read on 14 November 2026: SIB’s Table 7 has no row for French, and its Speaks Other row counts 2,475 people without naming the languages in it. The report text prints no share for Maya Yucatec, Chinese, Hindi or Other. SIB’s tables count who can speak each language; the parts we read give no mother-tongue or home-language count. Neither the Tourism Board’s sheet nor the consulate’s page names the law or instrument that makes English official. Belize’s place among its neighbours, and why English sets it apart in Central America, is on our Central America or the Caribbean page.
How we researched this
On 14 November 2026 we read the language section (PDF page 24) and Table 3.8 (PDF pages 59-60) of SIB’s Key Findings Report for the 2022 Population and Housing Census, and Table 7, Population Four Years and Older by Languages Spoken and District: 2022, in SIB’s workbook Census2022_GeneralCharacteristics.xlsx. We read the Belize Tourism Board’s Belize Fast Facts PDF and the consulate’s About Belize page for the official-language statements. The district with the most speakers column, our reading of Table 3.8 and the observation that the counts exceed the population are ours; every count and share is SIB’s.
Sources
- Statistical Institute of Belize, Key Findings Report, 2022 Population and Housing Census (PDF): the 368,924 base, the national and district shares, the 2010-2022 change for English, Table 3.8.
- Statistical Institute of Belize, Census 2022 General Characteristics workbook (XLSX): Table 7 counts by language and district.
- Statistical Institute of Belize, Abstract of Statistics 2025 (PDF): San Ignacio/Santa Elena listed under Cayo.
- Belize Tourism Board, Belize Fast Facts (PDF): English the official language, the only such country in Central America.
- Consulate of Belize in Los Angeles, About Belize: English official, Kriol spoken, the greetings and the other languages named.
Last verified: 2026-11-14
Researched and written by Estuardo Enriquez for belizetravelblog.com, an independent site with no connection to any airport, airline, tour operator or government body.