List of languages by total number of speakers
This is a list of languages by total number of speakers.
It is difficult to define what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example, Chinese and Arabic are sometimes considered single languages, but each includes several mutually unintelligible varieties, and so they are sometimes considered language families instead. Conversely, colloquial registers of Hindi and Urdu are almost completely mutually intelligible, and are sometimes classified as one language, Hindustani. Such rankings should be used with caution, because it is not possible to devise a coherent set of linguistic criteria for distinguishing languages in a dialect continuum.[1]
There is no single criterion for how much knowledge is sufficient to be counted as a second-language speaker. For example, English has about 450 million native speakers but, depending on the criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as two billion speakers.[2]
There are also difficulties in obtaining reliable counts of speakers, which vary over time because of population change and language shift. In some areas, there is no reliable census data, the data is not current, or the census may not record languages spoken, or record them ambiguously. Sometimes speaker populations are exaggerated for political reasons, or speakers of minority languages may be underreported in favor of a national language.[3]
Ethnologue (2023)[edit]
The following languages are listed as having 45 million or more total speakers in the 26th edition of Ethnologue published in 2023.[4] This section does not include entries that Ethnologue identifies as macrolanguages encompassing all their respective varieties, such as Arabic, Lahnda, Persian, Malay, Pashto, and Chinese.
| Language | Family | Branch | First-language (L1) speakers |
Second-language (L2) speakers |
Total speakers (L1+L2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English (excl. creole languages) |
Indo-European | Germanic | 380 million | 1.077 billion[5] | 1.456 billion |
| Mandarin Chinese (incl. Standard Chinese, but excl. other varieties) |
Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 939 million | 199 million[6] | 1.138 billion |
| Hindi (excl. Urdu) |
Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 345 million | 266 million[7] | 610 million |
| Spanish (excl. creole languages) |
Indo-European | Romance | 485 million | 74 million[8] | 559 million |
| French (excl. creole languages) |
Indo-European | Romance | 81 million | 229 million[9] | 310 million |
| Modern Standard Arabic (excl. dialects) |
Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | —[a] | 274 million[11] | 274 million |
| Bengali | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 234 million | 39 million[12] | 273 million |
| Portuguese (excl. creole languages) |
Indo-European | Romance | 236 million | 27 million [13] | 264 million |
| Russian | Indo-European | Balto-Slavic | 147 million | 108 million[14] | 255 million |
| Urdu (excl. Hindi) |
Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 71 million | 161 million[15] | 232 million |
| Indonesian (excl. other Malay) |
Austronesian | Malayo-Polynesian | 44 million | 155 million[16] | 199 million |
| Standard German | Indo-European | Germanic | 75 million | 58 million[17] | 133 million |
| Japanese | Japonic | — | 123 million | 0.2 million[18] | 123 million |
| Nigerian Pidgin | English Creole | Krio | 5 million | 116 million[19] | 121 million |
| Egyptian Arabic (excl. other Arabic dialects) |
Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | 77 million | 25 million[20] | 102 million |
| Marathi | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 83 million | 16 million[21] | 99 million |
| Telugu | Dravidian | South-Central | 83 million | 13 million[22] | 96 million |
| Turkish | Turkic | Oghuz | 84 million | 6 million[23] | 90 million |
| Tamil | Dravidian | Southern | 79 million | 8 million[24] | 87 million |
| Yue Chinese (incl. Cantonese) |
Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 86 million | 1 million[25] | 87 million |
| Vietnamese | Austroasiatic | Vietic | 85 million | 1 million[26] | 86 million |
| Wu Chinese (incl. Shanghainese) |
Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 83 million | 0.1 million[27] | 83 million |
| Tagalog[b] | Austronesian | Malayo-Polynesian | 29 million | 54 million[28] | 83 million |
| Korean | Koreanic | — | 82 million | — [29] |
82 million |
| Iranian Persian (excl. other Persian dialects) |
Indo-European | Iranian | 57 million | 21 million[30] | 79 million |
| Hausa | Afro-Asiatic | Chadic | 52 million | 27 million[31] | 79 million |
| Swahili | Niger–Congo | Bantu | 16 million | 55 million[32] | 72 million |
| Javanese | Austronesian | Malayo-Polynesian | — | — [33] |
68 million |
| Italian | Indo-European | Romance | 65 million | 3 million[34] | 68 million |
| Western Punjabi (excl. Eastern Punjabi) |
Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | — | — [35] |
67 million |
| Gujarati | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 57 million | 5 million[36] | 62 million |
| Thai | Kra–Dai | Zhuang–Tai | 21 million | 40 million[37] | 61 million |
| Kannada | Dravidian | Southern | 44 million | 15 million[38] | 59 million |
| Amharic | Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | 32 million | 25 million[39] | 58 million |
| Bhojpuri | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 52 million | 0.2 million[40] | 52 million |
| Eastern Punjabi (excl. Western Punjabi) |
Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 48 million | 4 million[41] | 52 million |
| Min Nan Chinese (incl. Hokkien) |
Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 50 million | 0.4 million[42] | 50 million |
| Jin Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | — | — [43] |
48 million |
| Levantine Arabic (excl. other Arabic dialects) |
Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | 47 million | 0.4 million[44] | 48 million |
| Yoruba | Niger–Congo | Atlantic–Congo | 44 million | 2 million[45] | 46 million |
The World Factbook (2022)[edit]
The World Factbook, produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), estimates the ten most spoken languages (L1 + L2) in 2022 as follows:[46]
| Language | Percentage of world population (2022) |
|---|---|
| English | 18.8% |
| Mandarin Chinese | 13.8% |
| Hindi | 7.5% |
| Spanish | 6.9% |
| French | 3.4% |
| Arabic | 3.4% |
| Bengali | 3.4% |
| Russian | 3.2% |
| Portuguese | 3.2% |
| Urdu | 2.9% |
See also[edit]
- Lingua franca
- Lists of languages
- List of languages by number of native speakers
- List of languages by the number of countries in which they are recognized as an official language
- Number of languages by country
- World language
- Languages used on the Internet
- Extinct language
- Official languages of the United Nations
Explanatory notes[edit]
- ^ Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is not an L1. Arabic speakers first learn their respective local dialect. MSA is acquired through formal education.[10]
- ^ Tagalog and Filipino are defined as two different languages in the ISO 639 standard. Ethnologue considers that Filipino is a standardized variety of the Tagalog language with no speakers.
References[edit]
- ^ Paolillo, John C.; Das, Anupam (31 March 2006). "Evaluating language statistics: the Ethnologue and beyond" (PDF). UNESCO Institute of Statistics. pp. 3–5. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
- ^ Crystal, David (March 2008). "Two thousand million?". English Today. 24: 3–6. doi:10.1017/S0266078408000023. S2CID 145597019.
- ^ Crystal, David (1988). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge University Press. pp. 286–287. ISBN 978-0-521-26438-9.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "What are the top 200 most spoken languages?". Ethnologue. 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-25.
- ^ English at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Chinese, Mandarin at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Hindi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Spanish at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ French at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Bengali at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Portuguese at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Russian at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Urdu at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Indonesian at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ German, Standard at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Japanese at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Nigerian Pidgin at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Marathi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Telugu at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Turkish at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Tamil at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Chinese, Yue at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Vietnamese at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Chinese, Wu at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Tagalog at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Persian, Iranian at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Hausa at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Swahili at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Italian at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Western Punjabi at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Gujarati at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Thai at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Kannada at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Bhojpuri at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Chinese, Min Nan at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Yoruba at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Most spoken languages in the World". The World Factbook. CIA. Retrieved 2022-01-01.
