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List of languages by total number of speakers
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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. Some languages, such as Chinese and Arabic, cover several mutually unintelligible varieties and are sometimes considered single languages and sometimes language families. Conversely, colloquial registers of Hindi and Urdu are almost completely mutually intelligible, and are sometimes classified as one language, Hindustani, instead of two separate languages. 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 370 million native speakers but, depending on the criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as 2 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 under-reported in favor of a national language.[3]
Top languages by population
Ethnologue (2022, 25th edition)
The following languages are listed as having 40 million or more total speakers in the 2022 edition of Ethnologue.[4] Entries identified by Ethnologue as macrolanguages (such as Arabic, Persian, Malay, Pashto, and Chinese, encompassing all their respective varieties) are not included in this section.
| Language | Family | Branch | First-language (L1) speakers | Second-language (L2) speakers | Total speakers (L1+L2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Indo-European | Germanic | 372.9 million | [5]1.080 billion | 1.452 billion |
| Mandarin Chinese (incl. Standard Chinese, but excl. other varieties) | Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 929.0 million | [6]198.7 million | 1.118 billion |
| Hindi (excl. Urdu) | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 343.9 million | [7]258.3 million | 602.2 million |
| Spanish | Indo-European | Romance | 474.7 million | [8]73.6 million | 548.3 million |
| French | Indo-European | Romance | 79.9 million | [9]194.2 million | 274.1 million |
| Modern Standard Arabic (excl. dialects) | Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | 0[a] | [11]274.0 million | 274.0 million |
| Bengali | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 233.7 million | [12]39.0 million | 272.7 million |
| Russian | Indo-European | Balto-Slavic | 154.0 million | [13]104.1 million | 258.2 million |
| Portuguese | Indo-European | Romance | 232.4 million | [14]25.2 million | 257.7 million |
| Urdu (excl. Hindi) | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 70.2 million | [15]161.0 million | 231.3 million |
| Indonesian (excl. Malay) | Austronesian | Malayo-Polynesian | 43.6 million | [16]155.4 million | 199.0 million |
| Standard German | Indo-European | Germanic | 75.6 million | [17]59.1 million | 134.6 million |
| Japanese | Japonic | — | 125.3 million | [18]0.1 million | 125.4 million |
| Nigerian Pidgin | English Creole | Krio | 4.7 million | [19]116.0 million | 120.7 million |
| Marathi | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 83.1 million | [20]16.0 million | 99.1 million |
| Telugu | Dravidian | South-Central | 82.7 million | [21]13.0 million | 95.7 million |
| Turkish | Turkic | Oghuz | 82.2 million | [22]5.9 million | 88.1 million |
| Tamil | Dravidian | Southern | 78.4 million | [23]8.0 million | 86.4 million |
| Yue Chinese (incl. Cantonese) | Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 85.2 million | [24]0.4 million | 85.6 million |
| Vietnamese | Austroasiatic | Vietic | 84.6 million | [25]0.7 million | 85.3 million |
| Tagalog[b] | Austronesian | Central Philippine | 28.2 million | [26]54.2 million | 82.3 million |
| Wu Chinese (incl. Shanghainese) | Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 81.7 million | [27]0.1 million | 81.8 million |
| Korean | Koreanic | — | — | — [28] | 81.7 million |
| Iranian Persian (excl. Dari and Tajik) | Indo-European | Iranian | 56.4 million | [29]21.0 million | 77.4 million |
| Hausa | Afro-Asiatic | Chadic | 50.8 million | [30]26.3 million | 77.1 million |
| Egyptian Spoken Arabic (excl. other Arabic dialects) | Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | — | — [31] | 74.8 million |
| Swahili | Niger–Congo | Bantu | 16.1 million | [32]55.4 million | 71.4 million |
| Javanese | Austronesian | Malayo-Polynesian | — | — [33] | 68.3 million |
| Italian | Indo-European | Romance | 64.8 million | [34]3.1 million | 67.9 million |
| Western Punjabi (excl. Eastern Punjabi) | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | — | — [35] | 66.4 million |
| Kannada | Dravidian | Southern | 48.6 million | [36]15.4 million | 64.0 million |
| Gujarati | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 57.0 million | [37]5.0 million | 62.0 million |
| Thai | Kra–Dai | Zhuang–Tai | 20.7 million | [38]40.0 million | 60.7 million |
| Amharic | Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | 32.4 million | [39]25.1 million | 57.5 million |
| Bhojpuri | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 52.3 million | [40]0.2 million | 52.5 million |
| Eastern Punjabi (excl. Western Punjabi) | Indo-European | Indo-Aryan | 48.1 million | [41]3.6 million | 51.7 million |
| Min Nan Chinese (incl. Hokkien) | Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 49.3 million | [42]0.4 million | 49.7 million |
| Jin Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | — | — [43] | 47.1 million |
| Yoruba | Niger–Congo | Atlantic–Congo | 43.6 million | [44]2.0 million | 45.6 million |
| Hakka Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Sinitic | 43.8 million | [45]0.2 million | 44.1 million |
| Burmese | Sino-Tibetan | Tibeto-Burman | 33.0 million | [46]10.0 million | 43.0 million |
| Sudanese Spoken Arabic | Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | 33.3 million | [47]9.0 million | 42.3 million |
| Polish | Indo-European | Balto-Slavic | 40.0 million | [48]0.7 million | 40.6 million |
| Algerian Spoken Arabic | Afro-Asiatic | Semitic | 34.7 million | [49]5.6 million | 40.3 million |
| Lingala | Niger–Congo | Atlantic–Congo | 20.3 million | 20.0 million | 40.3 million |
CIA, 2020
According to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the 10 most-spoken languages (L1 + L2) in 2020 were:[50]
| Language | Percentage of world population (2020) |
|---|---|
| English | 16.5% |
| Mandarin Chinese | 14.6% |
| Hindi | 8.3% |
| Spanish | 7.0% |
| French | 3.6% |
| Arabic | 3.6% |
| Bengali | 3.4% |
| Russian | 3.4% |
| Portuguese | 3.3% |
| Indonesian | 2.6% |
See also
Notes
- ^ Modern Standard Arabic is not an L1.[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
- ^ 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.
- ^ "What are the top 200 most spoken languages?". Ethnologue. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
- ^ English at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Chinese, Mandarin at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Hindi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Spanish at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ French at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Bengali at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Russian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Portuguese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Urdu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Indonesian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ German, Standard at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Japanese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Nigerian Pidgin at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Marathi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Telugu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Turkish at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Tamil at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Chinese, Yue at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Vietnamese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Tagalog at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Chinese, Wu at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Persian, Iranian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Hausa at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Swahili at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Italian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Western Punjabi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Kannada at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Gujarati at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Thai at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Bhojpuri at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Chinese, Min Nan at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ List of languages by total number of speakers at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Yoruba at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Hakka Chinese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Burmese at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Sudanese Spoken Arabic at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Polish at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Sudanese Spoken Arabic at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b "Most spoken languages in the World". Retrieved 1 Jan 2022.
External links
- Ghosh, Iman (2020-02-15). "Ranked: The 100 Most Spoken Languages Around the World". Visual Capitalist. Retrieved 2022-03-05.