Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa (24% of the population) as well as being understood by over 50% of the population. It became one of South Africa's eleven official languages in 1994. According to Ethnologue, it is the second most widely spoken Bantu language after Shona. Like many other Bantu languages, it is written using the Latin alphabet.