The people speaking this language reside along the cost of the lake of Senegal down to the river side of Gambia. This line comprises of three countries; Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia. In these countries, Wolof remain the native language by the side of the official or national languages; English, French and Arabic. The situation though, differs from country to another. While in Gambia for example, the Wolof speakers constitute 16% of the population of about 700,000, in Mauritania, they constitute 5% of the population of about two million. In Senegal, Wolof is LI (native language) for about 44% of the whole population of the country. In addition, about 22% of the population speaks Wolof as LII (second language) as the remaining population used Wolof for one reason or another. With the analysis above, Wolof is considered the mother of the Senegalese languages. This explains the reason why the language monopolizes the local languages broadcasting activity in the country with a lion share 88%. The language also plays an important role in television programs that include daily news casting, monthly programs, short films, advertisement and publicity. Talking about religious activities in Senegal, Wolof is the principal language used in the mosques for theological talks, commentary on the Quran, religious poetry and as well as in political congregations.

Wolof language has always been written with Arabic script since the beginning of contact with Islamic culture coming from Northern Africa as well as the rise of the Wolof empire in the 11th century. Since that time, Arabic script was modified to go in line with the Wolof sounds that do not exist in Arabic language. This script was named Wolfal continued to be used in documenting the administrative literature of the time. To date, Wolfal is still in use for writing personal letters among friends. Some Sufi temples continued to use Wolofal in writing books and other publications for guidance to their followers on the range of issues such as health and agriculture. It was not until the 17th century before the Christian missionaries introduced Latin alphabet to be used for writing Wolof language in both Gambia and Senegal.