This frame survey was conducted by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Namibia with support from the Integrated Management of the Zambezi/Chobe River System Fishery Resource Project and attempted to cover all accessible villages and fishing camps on the floodplain in Botswana, Namibia and Zambia. 575 villages and fishing camps were visited in Namibia and Zambia, where an estimated 5 754 fishers lived in a population of 32 200 people. The fishers formed 17.8% of the total village population in general but the number of fishers per village or fishing camp was 5.7 in Namibia compared to a much higher 33.7 in Zambia. Villages and fishing camps are both mainly old and established, with an average age of 64 years. Crops are planted at almost all villages, dominated by maize, but also vegetables and other crops. More crops are planted in the higher dry uplands in Zambia than in Namibia where most villages lie in the floodplain itself. A total of 1473 fishers were questioned from the 575 villages and fishing camps visited. Only 2.5% of fishers were female and then mostly young women up to 40 years. 23.7% of the fishers in Namibia were Zambian citizens but in Zambia only 4.1% were Namibians. The Zambians speak mostly Silozi but in Namibia about half of the fishers use Sisubia as home language. Very little other home languages were recorded. 81% of fishers are self-employed but 20% of Zambian fishers in Namibia are hired locally. The percentage self-employment increases with age of the fishers and more fishers in Zambia are self-employed than in Namibia. On both sides of the Zambezi more than 85% of fishers are heads of households. The number of dependants climbs from a low in young fishers to a peak at more than six dependants on both sides of the river and the actual number of dependants seems to be higher in Zambia, indicating the importance of fishers as breadwinners. Fishing is a lifelong profession with some fishers having fished for 60 years. However, a large number of fishers have entered the profession over the last five years. In Zambia this happened about five years ago and in Caprivi recently, one year, reflecting attractiveness of fishing as occupation after three good flood years and good prices.