Countries with

Constitutional Recognition

Official Sign Language has been added to the constitution in 11 Countries

How many people know sign language?

*accuracy of number of signers subject to accuracy of associations reports and claims

Uganda (1995)

- 840,000/ 31,660,000

Finland (1995)

- 5000 / 5,451,000

South Africa (1996)

- 235,000/ 52,260,000

Portugal (1997)

- 60,000/ 10,043,000

Venezuela (1999)

- 52,000/ 29,890,000

Austria (2005)

- 10,000/ 8,508,000

New Zealand (2006)

- 11,000/ 4,442,000

Ecuador (2008)

- 231,000/ 15,800,000

Kenya (2010)

- 600,000/42,490,000

Zimbabwe (2010)

- 280,000/ 14,090,000

Hungary (2011)

- 9,000/ 9,877,000

Despite Finland and Uganda adding sign language to their constitution in the same year, Uganda has much more sign language users as compared to the general population.

There appears to be no correlation between the length of the constitution in place and the number of signers in a given country.

*This map excludes India and China as their population was significantly higher and skewed the scaleChina= 20,000,000India= 1,500,000

Number of Users Compared to Other Continental Countries

Finland, Hungary, Portugal, vs Other European Countries

Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya vs Other African Countries

New Zealand vs Australia

Ecuador and Venezuela vs Other South American Countries

No Countries in Asia or North America have recognized Sign Language in their Constitution

*India and China appear to have significantly more signers and could not fit on the scale in comparison to other sign languages

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