Countries with
Constitutional Recognition
Official Sign Language has been added to the constitution in 11 Countries
How many people know sign language?
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.
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