"While population figures estimate the Aka population at 30,000 there are good reasons to believe that the language/dialect(s) as a whole is at risk of disappearing. Progressively Aka/Bayaka-speakers are leaving the confines of the forest areas and are settling in the vicinity of smaller settlements in hope of day labour or medical assistance. Often it is exactly due to the effort of 'helping' the forest populations that they are being drawn out of their original environment. Frequently the consequence of these noble efforts is destitution, illness and the loss of their language in favour of Sango, in the Central African Republic and Lingala in the Congo."

"The generally accepted population figure for the Bayaka people is around 30,000 (Bahuchet and Thomas 1986:81, Bahuchet 1993b:81, Grimes 2000). It is very difficult to determine the exact size of the Bayaka population due to their mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle. The Central African government census of 1990 registered about 9,400 Bayaka in C.A.R (Recensement RCA 1988). Previously, Cavalli-Sforza had attempted a limited survey of the Bayaka of the Lobaye. He noted that only the Bayaka who happened to be near a village at the time of the census would be counted (1986:26). This same restriction would certainly hold true for the 1990 government census."