Most spoken languages of the word

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 to be 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, 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 450 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 populationEdit

Ethnologue (2022, 25th edition)Edit

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, Sindhi, 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 (excl. creole languages)	Indo-European	Germanic	372.9 million	1.080 billion[5]	1.452 billion
Mandarin Chinese (incl. Standard Chinese, but excl. other varieties)	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic	929.0 million	198.7 million[6]	1.118 billion
Hindi (excl. Urdu, and other languages)	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	343.9 million	258.3 million[7]	602.2 million
Spanish	Indo-European	Romance	474.7 million	73.6 million[8]	548.3 million
French	Indo-European	Romance	79.9 million	194.2 million[9]	274.1 million
Modern Standard Arabic (excl. dialects)	Afro-Asiatic	Semitic	0[a]	274.0 million[11]	274.0 million
Bengali	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	233.7 million	39.0 million[12]	272.7 million
Russian	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic	154.0 million	104.1 million[13]	258.2 million
Portuguese	Indo-European	Romance	232.4 million	25.2 million [14]	257.7 million
Urdu (excl. Hindi)	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	70.2 million	161.0 million[15]	231.3 million
Indonesian (excl. Malay)	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian	43.6 million	155.4 million[16]	199.0 million
Standard German	Indo-European	Germanic	75.6 million	59.1 million[17]	134.6 million
Japanese	Japonic	—	125.3 million	0.1 million[18]	125.4 million
Nigerian Pidgin	English Creole	Krio	4.7 million	116.0 million[19]	120.7 million
Marathi	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	83.1 million	16.0 million[20]	99.1 million
Telugu	Dravidian	South-Central	82.7 million	13.0 million[21]	95.7 million
Turkish	Turkic	Oghuz	82.2 million	5.9 million[22]	88.1 million
Tamil	Dravidian	Southern	78.4 million	8.0 million[23]	86.4 million
Yue Chinese (incl. Cantonese)	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic	85.2 million	0.4 million[24]	85.6 million
Vietnamese	Austroasiatic	Vietic	84.6 million	0.7 million[25]	85.3 million
Tagalog[b]	Austronesian	Central Philippine	28.2 million	54.2 million[26]	82.3 million
Wu Chinese (incl. Shanghainese)	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic	81.7 million	0.1 million[27]	81.8 million
Korean	Koreanic	—	—	— [28]	81.7 million
Iranian Persian (excl. Dari and Tajik)	Indo-European	Iranian	56.4 million	21.0 million[29]	77.4 million
Hausa	Afro-Asiatic	Chadic	50.8 million	26.3 million[30]	77.1 million
Egyptian Spoken Arabic (excl. other Arabic dialects)	Afro-Asiatic	Semitic	—	— [31]	74.8 million
Swahili	Niger–Congo	Bantu	16.1 million	55.4 million[32]	71.4 million
Javanese	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian	—	— [33]	68.3 million
Italian	Indo-European	Romance	64.8 million	3.1 million[34]	67.9 million
Western Punjabi (excl. Eastern Punjabi)	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	—	— [35]	66.4 million
Kannada	Dravidian	Southern	48.6 million	15.4 million[36]	64.0 million
Gujarati	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	57.0 million	5.0 million[37]	62.0 million
Thai	Kra–Dai	Zhuang–Tai	20.7 million	40.0 million[38]	60.7 million
Amharic	Afro-Asiatic	Semitic	32.4 million	25.1 million[39]	57.5 million
Bhojpuri	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	52.3 million	0.2 million[40]	52.5 million
Eastern Punjabi (excl. Western Punjabi)	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan	48.1 million	3.6 million[41]	51.7 million
Min Nan Chinese (incl. Hokkien)	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic	49.3 million	0.4 million[42]	49.7 million
Jin Chinese	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic	—	— [43]	47.1 million
Yoruba	Niger–Congo	Atlantic–Congo	43.6 million	2.0 million[44]	45.6 million
Hakka Chinese	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic	43.8 million	0.2 million[45]	44.1 million
Burmese	Sino-Tibetan	Tibeto-Burman	33.0 million	10.0 million[46]	43.0 million
Sudanese Spoken Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	Semitic	33.3 million	9.0 million[47]	42.3 million
Polish	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic	40.0 million	0.7 million[48]	40.6 million
Algerian Spoken Arabic	Afro-Asiatic	Semitic	34.7 million	5.6 million[49]	40.3 million
Lingala	Niger–Congo	Atlantic–Congo	20.3 million	20.0 million	40.3 million

Major Languages Spoken by Population ProportionEdit

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates the ten most-spoken languages (L1 + L2) in 2022 as follow:^[50]

Most-spoken languages, CIA, 2022^[50]

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 alsoEdit

NotesEdit

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

• Ghosh, Iman (2020-02-15). «Ranked: The 100 Most Spoken Languages Around the World». Visual Capitalist. Retrieved 2022-03-05.

What is the most spoken language in the world? In answer, here is the new article: The most spoken languages in 2023!

It is estimated that English will continue to be the most widely spoken language (first and second language) in the world in 2023. English is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. In today’s article, we look at the most widely spoken languages around the globe. According to various analyses, there are more than 7,000 languages spoken around the world. But only two of them exceed one billion: English and Mandarin Chinese.

The Most Spoken Languages 1900/2023

What is the most spoken language in the world in 2023? According to new studies, English is also the most spoken language worldwide in 2023. More than 1.5 billion people speak English as a first or second language all over the planet. A figure that has been growing steadily over the past few years. The second most spoken language is Mandarin Chinese, which has overtaken 1.1 billion people worldwide. In third position is Hindi, which is spoken by 600 million people. This is followed by Spanish with 552 million and Bengali with 276 million. Among the top positions we find Nigerian Pidgin for the first time. In fact, 124 million people speak it as a first or second language.

From 2022 to 2023, there were some changes among the world’s most spoken languages. The Bengali language dropped from seventh position in 2022 to fifth in 2023. And, as we mentioned above, Nigerian Pidgin entered the ranking in 2022 and overtook the Japanese language in 2023. These figures are obviously also influenced by the changing population. Just on 15 November 2022, the world reached 8 billion inhabitants with some countries in particular growing, including Nigeria.

Most Popular Languages

If English is the most spoken language in the world as a first and second language, what is the most spoken language as an original language? Here the ranking changes. In fact, English is the third most spoken language in the world as a first-language. There are 372.9 million people in the world who speak it as a first language while there are as many as 1.080 billion who speak it as a second. In fact, the most popular language as first-language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 929 million people in 2022 who spoke this language, which is spoken by another 198.7 million people as second.

In second position among the world’s most widely spoken first-languages is Spanish with 474.7 million people speaking it worldwide. Only in third position is English with 372.9 million and followed by Hindi with 343.9 million and Bengali with 233.7 million. For example, among the top most spoken languages in the world we also find Vietnamese with 84.6 million or Italian which is in 19th position with 64.8 million. The figure in this case is greatly influenced by the number of inhabitants of a given territory.

These days there are many online language learning applications where you have the opportunity to learn a new language online. 

Most spoken languages US

World figures say that English is the most spoken language in the world. But what are the most spoken languages in the United States? The first interesting fact is this. The United States has been a land of immigration for years. According to data published by Etnhologue, there are 422 languages spoken in the USA, 216 native and 206 from outside the country.

As you might expect, the most widely spoken language in the USA is English. 78.2% of the population, almost 4 out of 5, speak English exclusively. In second place among the most spoken languages in the USA is Spanish, a language spoken by more than 41 million people, accounting for 13.% of the total. But in third place we find Cilnese including Mandarin, Cantonese and other types. In total there were 3.5 million Chinese speakers in the US in 2017, over 1% of the total population. But there are a large number of languages spoken. These include Arabic, Cohran, Russian, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, Armenian, Greek and many others.

To view the video on YouTube: Most common languages from 1900 to 2023: https://youtu.be/98UvJEDZbEY

If you like it and want to support the channel donate a coffee to the Statistics and Data project: https://ko-fi.com/statisticsanddata

Read more articles: https://statisticsanddata.org/
To follow the channel subscribe: https://youtube.com/c/statisticsanddata

Support “Statistics and Data”

Language acts as a bridge for communication and development among the peoples of the world. In the globalized world today, there are more than 5000 languages spoken in 233 different countries and regions. Can you imagine that as some languages are slowly disappearing, some are becoming more and more commonly spoken?

So what are the most commonly used languages in the world? In this article, we will take you through the top10 most spoken languages.

English (1,132 million speakers)

• Native speakers: 360–400 million 
• Non-native speakers: 750 million
• Language family: Indo-European
• Official language in: 59 countries; 27 non-sovereign entities; Various organizations

English is the official language of the largest number of countries and the lingua franca in the world. In terms of native speakers, English is the third most spoken language after Chinese and Spanish. But it’s the most popular language to learn. So adding the number of non-native speakers, English is the most spoken language in the world. According to some statistics, if you know English, then you can understand 25% of internet users and 60% of the websites in the world.

Related reading: Top English Learning Resources

Mandarin（1,118 million speakers）

• Native speakers: 929 million 
• Non-native speakers: 198.7 million
• Language family: Sino-Tibetan
• Official language in: People’s Republic of China (as Putonghua); Singapore (as Huayu); United Nations; Cooperation Organization ASEAN

Mandarin is the world’s most spoken language by native speaker, with one fifth of the world’s population currently speaking it as their mother tongue. And it’s also one of the oldest languages in the world, tracing back to 3,000 years ago. Mandarin was adopted as the official language of China in 1932. It is also the most difficult language in the world, with a complex relationship between pronunciation, spoken and written language.

So what’s the difference between Mandarin and Chinese? In short, Chinese language is an umbrella term that encompasses many dialects like Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, and Shanghainese, with Mandarin being the most widely spoken one. Mandarin is called 普通话 (Pǔ tōng huà), meaning “common tongue” in Chinese. In many cities in China, people first acquire their local dialects when they were young. They only learn Mandarin in school and continue using it in most public situations as they grow up. While spoken Chinese may vary a lot in different regions, written texts mostly look the same or mutually intelligible.

Hindi (602 million speakers)

• Native speakers: 344 million 
• Non-native speakers: 258 million
• Language family: Indo-European
• Official language in: India

Hindi is one of the official languages of India, the soon-to-be most populous country in the world. But due to India’s ethnic culture, not all Indians speak Hindi. India has 22 official languages and over 100 recognized languages. Hindi is the most used language in India. It is also an important minority language in Fiji, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Arab Emirates.

Spanish (549 million speakers)

• Native speakers：475 million
• Non-native speakers: 74 million
• Language family：Indo-European

Spanish is the official language of 23 countries and territories, the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and many other international organizations. And it is now the second most learned language in the world, with more than 20 million Spanish learners.

According to FSI (the US Foreign Service Institute), it takes about 480 hours of study for a native English speaker to achieve ‘limited working proficiency’ in Spanish. In this sense, Spanish is also one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn.

French (274 million speakers)

• Native speakers: 80 million 
• Non-native speakers: 194 million
• Language family: Indo-European

French is the official language of 29 countries and many international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union. Due to the historical influence of French and Belgian colonization, French has become a second most used language in most African countries. It is also a popular language to learn as one of the languages that has the largest number of non-native speakers.

Related reading: Best Way to Learn French

Bengali (273 million speakers)

• Native speakers: 234 million 
• Non-native speakers: 39 million
• Language family: Indo-European; Indo-Aryan

Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and some areas in India and Burma. With a population of about 220 million speakers, Bengali is the second most spoken language in the Indo-Iranian language family after Hindi.

Modern Standard Arabic (274 million speakers)

• Native speakers: 0
• Non-native speakers: 274 million
• Language family: Afro-Asiatic; Semitic

Arabic is the official language of 27 states, second only to English and French. It is the lingua franca of the Arabic world and one of the languages used by many countries that no longer exist today. To this day, Modern Standard Arabic remains the common religious language of Muslims worldwide.

It is interesting to note that because of the many dialects of Arabic, Arabic in some places is not interchangeable in either written or spoken form. Most speakers learn Modern Standard Arabic as their second language in school.

Russian (258 million speakers)

• Native speakers: 154 million 
• Non-native speakers: 104 million
• Language family: Indo-European

Russian is one of the six working languages of the United Nations, the only official language of Russia, as well as one of the official languages of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is spoken mainly in Russia and other member states of the former Soviet Union, and was widely taught as a first foreign language in schools in the Warsaw Pact countries. 

Related reading: Best Way to Learn Russian

Portuguese (258 million speakers)

• Native speakers: 232 million 
• Non-native speakers: 25 million
• Language family: Indo-European

Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world after English and Spanish. As a result of Portuguese colonial expansion, Portuguese is nowadays spoken in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste and Macau, for a total of nine countries or territories. 

Indonesian (199 million speakers)

• Native speakers: 43 million 
• Non-native speakers: 156 million
• Language family: Austronesian

Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is a standardized Malay language. Prior to its standardization, Malay had circulated as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries. After Indonesia’s independence in 1945, Indonesian, whose mother tongue population is only 5% of the total population, was made an official language by the Indonesian government in order to unite the people of Indonesia’s thousands of islands. However, most Indonesians admit that they rarely use standard Indonesian in their daily lives.

Which language interests you the most? Leave a comment below!

Wake up. Learn languages. Be happy.
View all posts by Dear Deer

Alphabet jumble – or the question of defining language

Almost a billion people speak the most widely spoken language in the world! But that’s just ONE language: one among almost 7,100 languages ​​across the world!

According to the Ethnologue nobody can say that for sure, but with 7,100 languages, who’s counting anyways?

What actually constitutes a language?

What is the distinction between a language and a dialect?

Is there actually any difference? And what criteria are used to define these categories?

Are you finding all of this confusing?

Then you are in good company! These end up being questions about questions that do not always have a straightforward answer.

A glance at the Chinese language shows us how confusing the whole thing can become. Chinese is comprised of several languages: the most common of which is Mandarin—a language that, in turn, is comprised of 8 dialect groups.

Due to different scales or definitions (depending on the source) the numbers may therefore vary. In the end, the good news is that we largely agree on which five languages are most widely spoken across the world!

Languages that do not exist at all

As if 7,100 languages ​​were not enough, people seem to love languages ​​so much that they have invented a few fictional ones. Examples include Klingon from Star Trek, or Quenya, the language spoken by the elves in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. But no one shies away  from clever new creations: the best example appearing in television advertisements with fluent “Denglisch”, a creative combination of German (Deutsch) and English!

Most-spoken languages – a question of scale

While the most widely spoken language in the world has nearly hit the one billion mark, the 30 least-spoken languages do not even reach 500 speakers!

German, with more than 100 million native speakers, takes first place as the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Sounds like a lot, until we look at the percentage of other languages spoken around the world. With an estimated total population of 7.67 billion (2019), only about 1.3 percent of the entire world population are native German speakers. This percentage does not look very impressive, yet it puts the German language amongst the top 15 most widely spoken languages in the world.

The exact position it occupies depends on whether one includes only the number of native speakers or also those who speak German as a second language. You can read more facts and figures on the German language here!

In the following list of the five most widely spoken languages in the world, each position is based on the number of native speakers.

5th most widely spoken language: Arabic

Arabic is the native language of approximately 290 million people in the world; yet the phrase “no one speaks Arabic” still holds true.

How can that be?

Just like in Chinese, Arabic dialects sometimes differ greatly from each other. Instead of considering these different dialects as a group of languages, these are defined as a single language to make things easier.

Modern Standard Arabic is mainly used in writing; however, spoken Arabic differs greatly depending on the region.

4th most widely spoken language: Hindi

While Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, India also breaks other records in terms of languages.

With 22 official languages, India is unrivaled. Nevertheless, Zimbabwe occupies the first place when it comes to the country with the most official languages (16).

How so?

In India, many of the languages are only official at the state level, but not at the national level. The official languages of the Central Government in India are Hindi and English: this does not imply that these are the official languages in each state. Other than in India, Hindi is mainly spoken in neighboring Nepal.

3rd most widely spoken language: English

English is a world language!

It is spoken by most people around the world as a second or third language and is the lingua franca of the globe. In one way or another—whether traveling, at school, on television or on the job—English is the language that most people have come into contact. It therefore seems almost impossible to come up with something new on the English language. Nevertheless, anyone who searches long enough will find what they are looking for: did you know, for example, that the United States has no official language? Although the vast majority of Americans speak English, it has never been declared as the official language!

Incidentally, English is also the language with the most words. Who would have thought?

2nd most widely spoken language: Spanish

The majority of the approximately 460 million native Spanish speakers live outside of Spain—in South and Central America. One figure is especially surprising: there are around 58 million Spanish speakers in the United States (as of 2017). This places the U.S. in second position worldwide, because only Mexico has more Spanish speakers!

Have you ever read a sentence with the wrong emphasis because the question mark did not catch your eye until it was too late?

That can never happen to you with Spanish. ¡Question marks and exclamation marks are placed at the beginning and at the end of each sentence! However, why the initial punctuation mark is upside down remains an open question.

The Spanish language and its history

A language is much more than a means of communication. It contains traces of the history of a region and its culture, factors which shaped the language for centuries. Under the Romans, the Latin language spread across the Iberian Peninsula. This is where the Spanish language has its roots and therefore also belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European languages. While most know about the Latin roots of the language, the Arabic influence on Spanish often goes unmentioned. The Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Arabs and Berbers began in the eighth century.

Large parts of the peninsula remained under Muslim rule until the 15^th century. Their influence on architecture can still be admired today, especially in Andalusia. Arabs left their footprint even on the language. This means that there are still more than 4,000 Spanish words with an Arabic origin—just to name a few: almendra (almond), almohada (pillow) alfombra (carpet).

1^st most widely spoken language in the world: Chinese

Native speakers of Chinese have almost hit the one billion mark, so the first place goes—by far—to the Chinese language. The second and third most widely spoken mother tongues in the world PUT TOGETHER have approximately as many speakers as Chinese by itself.

When one mentions Chinese, one generally refers to Mandarin: this is the Chinese language with the most native speakers. It belongs to the Sinotibetan language family, the second largest in the world. This family also includes Cantonese and Wu, two languages widely used across China. About 70% of the Vietnamese vocabulary consists of words with a Chinese origin: yet the most amazing fact is that Vietnamese and Chinese are not related.

Have you ever tried to order a coffee in Chinese? I have! Indeed, the pronunciation is as difficult as people say it is! Nevertheless, I was positively surprised when I started learning some basic terminology for my stay in Taiwan.

A timeless world language

Chinese is a language that is incorporates the idea of “here and now” in the truest sense of the word, and much more than other languages. That is because Chinese has no past or future tense. A reference to yesterday or tomorrow is enough to let the other person know what you are talking about. Another fact that helps with learning is that combining two written characters make them take on a new meaning. For example, whoever knows the numbers from 1 to 12 and the word for “month” can automatically articulate the names of all the months. While we say “January”, “February”, etc., in Chinese these are simply composed by the word “month” and the corresponding number, with the number placed first, followed by the character for “month”. “Hello Chinese” is a particularly good app for learning Chinese.

Would you like to read more about the habits and customs in China?

Feel free to take a look at the interesting articles we published on China’s business relations, territory, people and China’s business etiquette.

Although many people have wondered what are the most spoken languages in the world in 2022, it is common for speculation and false beliefs to come to mind faster than the decision to do a quick search on the Internet.

But the answer is much more complex than you think, and it has nothing to do with the number of countries that speak a language or the number of people with one or another mother tongue, but with something much less considered: the facts.

The different events of history have motivated people to choose to learn this or that language, and that includes both the facts that appear in the books and the will of each individual to work in what they want.

At Lingua Language Center, we wanted to answer this question to explain in a more general way the cause of our preference for certain languages, especially Western ones, which foster communication with the rest of the world.

These are the most spoken languages in the world

1. English – 1,121 million speakers

It is the most widely spoken language in the world because of the global impact of England and the United States in the last three centuries.

It is not the mother tongue of most people, but it is the one that most people seek to learn. With English, there is no country or culture that cannot be accessed in a globalized world. This is the lingua franca of the 21st century.

2. Mandarin Chinese – 1,107 million speakers

Mandarin Chinese is the language with the most native speakers. But in recent years, the number of people interested in learning it as a second or third language has increased. This is due to the importance of China for the economic development of the world’s companies, both as a country that generates raw materials and as a technology developer.

3. Hindi – 698 million speakers

This is another language almost completely spoken by native speakers. But something similar to China is starting to happen: people want to do business with India, and speaking the language has become an important option.

However, the difference from China is that in India, almost 350 million people are able to communicate in a basic way in English and 100 million speak it correctly.

4. Spanish – 512 million speakers

Spanish is spoken as the official language in Spain, in 19 countries in the Americas, and in one in Africa. But its impact goes much further because of migrations.

For example, in the United States there are already more Spanish speakers than in Spain itself.

Speaking in Spanish has become an opportunity for professionals from all kinds of careers. That is why it is one of the most studied languages in the world.

5. French – 284 million speakers

For centuries, French was considered the language of art and culture. That is still a reality in some aspects, but the language goes much further.

The francophone encompasses 29 countries in the world without counting the territories that are still French colonies.

6. Arabic – 273 million speakers

The beauty of this language continues to amaze linguists around the world. As it has sounds in its pronunciation that are alien to the Western world, there has always been a fear of delving into its learning.

However, the experience of learning it has surprised a growing number of enthusiasts initially attracted to trade with Middle Eastern countries.

7. Bengali – 265 million inhabitants

This language cannot go unnoticed. It originated more than a thousand years ago and is part of the Eastern Indo-Aryan sub-branch.

Today it is spoken in basically two places: Bangladesh and West Bengal.

8. Russian – 258 million speakers

As extensive as the Russian territory is the use of its language. It is a mixture that resulted between several Slavic languages and classical Greek.

From there comes its peculiar Cyrillic alphabet, which according to its practitioners is the easiest to learn of a simple, sonorous and interesting language.

9. Portuguese – 234 million speakers

In the business world, Brazil is not spoken of as another market, but as another planet. It is a completely different world from what is known even in the rest of Latin America.

That is why speaking Portuguese is opening the doors to a new world.

In any case, this language also represents an opportunity beyond Brazil, as it is spoken in Portugal and in several African countries.

10. Indonesian – 200 million speakers

Although the majority of the inhabitants of the Republic of Indonesia are currently bilingual, Indonesian is their mother tongue.

It is also spoken in various parts of Malaysia and East Timor.

Despite its millions of inhabitants, it is used more frequently in urban Indonesia than in rural areas.

11. Urdu – 170 million speakers

Although it is the official language of Pakistan, its use in northern India has increased considerably in recent decades.

Urdu is written from right to left with the same alphabet used for Arabic and Persian. But its origin is different from that of these two languages. It was passed down by the Mongols from northern India and has been performed for centuries thanks to trade.

12. Japanese – 150 million speakers

Although Japan is only 377,975 kilometers long, it has 126 million inhabitants. But to speak rigorously of the language, we must include other corners of the world such as Palau, Marshall Islands, Guam, Hawaii, Micronesia, South Korea, Taiwan, and some more…

If with Portuguese we said that the language opens the doors to another planet, with Japanese we would have to speak of another universe.

It is about another culture that does not even have to do with the western one. The differences are so great that sometimes there are no common places between Japan and the rest of the world. And all that is the most interesting and attractive thing about learning Japanese.

13. German – 135 million speakers

Germany’s leadership in Europe makes it a very attractive language to learn. It is also spoken in Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Belgium, as well as in multiple regions of central Europe.

There is debate about its number of speakers, because, beyond the 135 million that we name here, a 2018 study calculates that there may currently be 298 million people speaking it to different degrees of knowledge.

14. Punjabi – 100 million speakers

It is an Indo-European language spoken in eastern India, in the Punjab region.

Its origin is in the Pracritic dialects.

Punjab is home to some of the oldest civilizations in the world, the Indus Valley. Therefore, the study of their language is of great interest to linguists and scholars mainly.

15. Javanese – 84 million speakers

This is a language that is spoken in the area of Indonesia, mainly on the island of Java.

16. Wu Chinese – 80 million speakers

This dialect of Chinese is spoken in various parts of the east of the country. In addition, emigration has also caused it to be used frequently in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

17. Telugu – 79 million speakers

It is another of the languages of overpopulated India, spoken mainly in the west of the country (in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh).

It is currently the fastest-growing language in the United States. Between 2010 and 2017 alone, the number of speakers in this country increased by 86%.

According to the Fundación Gente Télugu, the increase in speakers in the United States is due to the strong links between the city of Hyderabad, in India, and the engineering industries in America.

Tegulu is the mother tongue of many of Asia’s best engineers.

18. Turkish – 78 million speakers

19. Korean – 77 million speakers

It is the official language of South Korea and North Korea. Technology is the main reason to learn this language. However, popular culture has been one of the keys to bringing young people closer to the language.

Musical groups such as Black Pink or BTS have generated authentic industries around the so-called K-Pop, and this has made the acquisition of the language much more attractive.

20. Marathi – 74 million speakers

Another language of India. There are 22 official languages in that country according to its Constitution, although the two main ones are English and Hindi.

The most beautiful thing about Marathi is its amazing literary tradition, which, through its famous writers, has put India several times on the map of world literature.

It is the language spoken in the city of Bombay.

Learn languages with Lingua Language Center

At Lingua Language Center, we teach the most widely spoken languages in the world for students who are both in the state of Florida, in the United States, and anywhere in the world.

Write us to get information about our different courses.

What are the world’s most spoken languages?

Well, more than 7,100 languages are spoken in the world today. Each and every one of them make the world a diverse and beautiful place.

Sadly, some of these languages are less widely spoken than others. Take Busuu, for example – we’re named after a language spoken by only eight people.

Others are spoken by huge populations across different countries, and are often popular choices among language learners.

Read on for the twelve most spoken languages in the world, in terms of native speakers, and everything you need to know about them.

1. English (1,132 million speakers)

Language family: Germanic, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: German, Dutch, Frisian

Fun fact: The English word “goodbye” was originally a contraction of “God be with ye”.

With over 1,130 million native speakers, English is the most spoken language in the world.

It’s also the official language of the sky – all pilots have to speak and identify themselves in English.

Not only is Shakespeare widely considered as one of the greatest dramatists of all time, but over his lifespan he added an incredible amount of about 1,700 words to the English language by changing nouns into verbs, verbs into nouns, connecting some words with each other and adding prefixes or suffixes to others.

2. Mandarin Chinese (1,117 million speakers)

Language family: Sino-Tibetan

Related to: Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese

Fun fact: Research suggests that you’ll only need around 2,500 characters to be able to read almost 98 percent of everyday written Chinese.

In terms of native speakers alone, Mandarin Chinese is by far the second most spoken language in the world.

It’s an official language of mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore and one of the six official languages of the United Nations. So it’s not surprising that there are approximately 1.09 million native speakers worldwide.

Mandarin is a tonal language, which means that the meaning of a word changes based on the way we pronounce it.

With a set of about 50,000 characters, it is probably one of the most complex languages to learn.

But don’t worry: there are no verb conjugations, no tenses and no gender-specific nouns either.

Quite motivating, isn’t it? 

Maybe that’s also why it’s one of the most popular languages to learn today…

3. Hindi (615 million speakers)

Language family: Indo-Ayran, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

Fun fact: If you’re an English speaker, you probably already know some Hindi. Do words like ‘guru’, ‘jungle’, ‘karma’, ‘yoga’, ‘bungalow’, ‘cheetah’ and ‘avatar’ ring a bell? These words (and many more!) have been borrowed from Hindi.

There are about 615 million native Hindi speakers, which makes it the third most spoken language in the world. It’s the official language of India, and is also spoken in countries such as Nepal, Fiji, Mauritius and Guyana.

Hindi is highly influenced by Sanskrit and named after the Persian word hind, which means – quite literally – “Land of the Indus river”.

4. Spanish (534 million speakers)

Language family: Romance, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian

Fun fact: The first modern novel and the second most translated book after the Bible was written in Spanish. Which novel? It’s Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, of course!

Twenty-two countries over four continents have Spanish as the or one of the official languages, and it’s already the second most studied language in the world.

Can you believe that within three generations, 10 percent of the world’s population will be able to communicate in Spanish?

This is great news for native English speakers.

For Spanish appears to be the easiest foreign language for English speakers to learn! Experts say it takes only 22-24 weeks to reach what’s called general professional proficiency in the language.

5. French (280 million speakers)

Language family: Romance

Related to: Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian

Fun fact: About 45 per cent of modern English words are of French origin.

In spite of what Hollywood movies might tell you, the language of love doesn’t solely exist on moonlit walks in Paris.

Spoken across different parts of the world – think everywhere from the rest of France and parts of Canada to a handful of African countries, including Senegal and Madagascar – the French language has spread its roots far and wide.

6. Arabic (274 million speakers)

Language family: Semitic, a sub-family of Afro-Asiatic

Related to: Hebrew, Amharic, Aramaic

Fun fact: Arabic has at least 11 words for love, each of them expressing a different stage in the process of falling in love. Now isn’t that a reason to start learning?

With 295 million native speakers, Arabic is the sixth most spoken language in the world, and the only one in our top twelve that is written from right to left.

It has also heavily influenced European languages like Spanish and Portuguese: some words sound exactly the same.

It’s left its mark on the English language, too. The word coffee, for example, comes from the Arabic word qahwa.

7. Bangla/Bengali (265 million speakers)

Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: Hindu, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

Fun fact: While the Bengali script is relatively unknown in the West, but it’s actually the fifth most widely used writing system in the world!

Bengali, known to many English speakers around the world as Bangla, is mostly spoken in Bangladesh and India and is considered by some to be the second most beautiful language after French.

With around 205 million native speakers, it’s the seventh most spoken language in the world.

The Bengali alphabet is particularly interesting.

Every consonant has a vowel sound built in, which is quite unusual for Westerners.

It gets even better: different marks change the default vowel sound of a word and therefore also the meaning!

8. Russian (258 million speakers)

Language family: East Slavic, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: Ukrainian, Belarusian

Fun fact: Due to Russia’s presence in space technology, it is a requirement for foreign astronauts to know a certain amount of Russian (as if becoming an astronaut wasn’t already difficult enough!).

One of the most spread out languages (with around 155 million native speakers living across the world), the eighth most spoken language in the world is Russian.

While Russian grammar is renowned to be a little tricky, Russian only has about 200,000 words (English has roughly one million), which is why most of them have more than one meaning.

9. Portuguese (234 million speakers)

Language family: Romance, a sub-branch of Indo-European

Related to: Spanish, French, Italian, Romanian

Fun fact: Until recently, the letters “k”, “w“ and “y” were not part of the Portuguese alphabet. In 2009, a new agreement was signed to standardise spelling forms across different variations.

Portuguese is rooted in the region of Medieval Galicia (which was partly in the north of Portugal and partly in the northwest of Spain), but only five percent of the 215 million native Portuguese speakers actually live in Portugal.

You probably know that it’s the official language of Brazil, but is also has the sole official status in: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

10. Indonesian (199 million speakers)

Language family: Austronesian

Related to: Malay, Javanese, Sundranese, Madurese etc. 

Fun fact: Along with Malay, it’s up there in the list of most polite languages in the world’s Eastern region.

A standardised variation of Malay, an Austronesian language that’s the official language of Malaysia, Indonesian is a great example of a widely spoken language that encompasses a number of distinct dialects across Indonesia.

And despite Western preconceptions, with a simple structure and easy pronunciation in its favour, Indonesian is surprisingly easy to learn. 

11. Urdu (170 million speakers)  

Language family: Indo-Aryan

Related to: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

Fun fact: Hindi and Urdu speakers can have a simple conversation just fine – provided they keep things relatively simple!

The lingua franca of Pakistan and very close to Hindi, Urdu has crept up on the most spoken languages list in the last year or so.

Dubbed by some as the language of love for its intriguing-sounding and beautiful words, the French language may have some competition on its hands…  

12. German (132 million speakers)

Language family: West Germanic, a sub-family of Indo-European

Related to: English, Frisian, Dutch

Fun fact: German is known for its seemingly endless sentences.

Often referred to as the language of writers and thinkers, German has just over 100 million native – and just under 32 non-native – speakers worldwide, and is the most spoken language in the European Union.

It’s an official language of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

German is especially well known for its ability to create completely new and super specific words.

That’s probably why it’s so poetic. Schadenfreude, for example, literally means ‘damage happiness’, and is used to describe the happiness or entertainment derived from someone else’s misfortune, injury or pain.

---

Feeling inspired to learn a new language? 

We’re Busuu, an app that makes mastering a language easier for everyone. Start learning with us today. 

---

We think you might also like…

• 7 best languages to learn in 2023
• Top 10 oldest languages in the world
• The 7 coolest languages to learn in 2023
• Top 10 most beautiful languages in the world
• The 8 hardest languages to learn for English speakers

We are living in an increasingly globalized world, and as a result of this globalization, many different languages have been introduced into our lives. Of course, some have emerged as the most spoken languages in the world.

Different countries, cultures, and ethnicities all have their own languages which they use to communicate with others in their area or region. In fact, we live in a diverse world where more than seven thousand different languages exist!

Let’s take a look at the top 33 most spoken languages in the world, including facts about them that you may not know!

What Are The Most Spoken Languages in the World?

The table below shows 33 of the most spoken languages in the world, ranked by total number of speakers. The data comes from Ethnologue. These numbers include people who are native speakers of the language as well as people who have learned the language. Scroll down to learn more about each language.

Language	Total Number of Speakers
English	1,452,000,000
Mandarin Chinese	1,118,000,000
Hindi	602,200,000
Spanish	548,300,000
French	274,100,00
Standard Arabic	274,000,000
Bengali	272,700,000
Russian	258,200,000
Portuguese	257,700,000
Urdu	231,300,000
Indonesian	199,000,000
German	134,600,000
Japanese	125,400,000
Nigerian Pidgin	120,700,000
Marathi	99,100,000
Telugu	95,700,000
Turkish	88,100,000
Tamil	86,400,000
Yue Chinese	85,600,000
Vietnamese	85,300,000
Tagalog	82,300,000
Wu Chinese	81,800,000
Korean	81,700,000
Iranian Persian (Farsi)	77,400,000
Hausa	77,100,000
Egyptian Spoken Arabic	74,800,000
Swahili	71,400,00
Javanese	68,300,000
Italian	67,900,000
Western Punjabi	66,400,000
Kannada	64,000,000
Gujarati	62,000,000
Thai	60,700,000

English – 1.452 Billion Speakers

In total, there are approximately 1.452 billion people who speak English.

It’s the official language of 67 countries and is also an official language of many large international organizations. These include the United Nations, the European Union, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund.

Additionally, 55% of the internet is in English, and it’s the most studied language in the world. The benefits of speaking English are endless!

RELATED: Best Apps to Learn English

Mandarin Chinese – 1.118 Billion Speakers

There are around 1.118 billion speakers of Mandarin Chinese, and it has been spoken in China for more than 3,000 years. Mandarin Chinese is also the official language of Singapore and Taiwan. There are many other languages in China (like Cantonese), but Mandarin is by far the most widely spoken.

Many people mistake Mandarin for the most spoken language in the world. In reality, it’s the language with the most native speakers and is the most spoken language in Asia. This means there are a lot of great advantages for people who speak Mandarin.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Chinese

Hindi – 602.2 Million Speakers

Hindi is one of the two official languages of India (the other is English). There are many different dialects of Hindi, but not all dialects can be understood by each other.

Interestingly, even though Hindi is an official language in India, not everyone in the country speaks it. There are over 22 languages in India!

People speak different variations of Hindi around the world. You can hear Hindi in Fiji (where it’s an official language) and also in some Caribbean countries, like Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and Guyana.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Hindi

Spanish – 548.3 Million Speakers

Spanish, also known as Castilian in Spain, is the official language of 20 countries. It’s one of the official languages of the United Nations, as well as other international organizations, including the African Union and the European Union. Outside of that, Spanish has also influenced several other languages, like Tagalog.

If you’re in the United States, you may be surprised to find out that Spanish is the second most spoken language in the country. There are over 40 million Spanish speakers in the US!

Over the past couple years, Spanish has become more influential in pop culture, too. If you listen to an English-language radio or television station, chances are you’ll hear some Spanish-language songs.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Spanish

French – 274.1 Million Speakers

French is not only one of the most spoken languages in the world, it’s also an official language of the UN, EU, and other major international organizations. It’s the official language of 29 countries and territories around the world, including Haiti and Rwanda.

The French vocabulary has also had a tremendous impact on other languages around the world, including English. Around 40% of English words have a French origin.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn French

Standard Arabic – 274 Million Speakers

Arabic is the official language of 26 countries, but most countries and regions have their own dialects of Arabic. Standard Arabic is the main dialect spoken between Arabic speakers so they can understand each other.

That’s why there are zero native speakers of Standard Arabic! It’s the only language on this list that has zero native speakers but is still one of the most spoken languages in the world.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Arabic

Bengali – 272.7 Million Speakers

Bengali, also known as Bangla, is the official language of Bangladesh, and it’s the second most spoken language in India, behind Hindi.

Some people have never heard of the Bengali language, and they definitely don’t know it’s one of the most spoken languages in the world!

People who speak Bengali are very proud of their language though. In fact, people around the world know Bengali for its language movements, and many people have sacrificed their lives for the sake of this language. The country of Bangladesh actually got its name from the language!

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Bengali

Russian – 258.2 Million Speakers

Russian is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It was the official language of the Soviet Union, and people still use it in public life in all the former Soviet states, as well as Israel and Mongolia. Today, it’s the most spoken language in Europe.

Language experts consider Russian to be one of the richest and most complex languages in the world. Surprisingly, all words in the Russian language that begin with “A” come from other languages though!

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Russian

Portuguese – 257.7 Million Speakers

Portuguese is the official language of nine countries: Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe. Because of its colonial history, there are also many Portuguese speakers in parts of India.

In writing, a lot of Portuguese and Spanish words are usually mutually intelligible. Portuguese can also serve as a solid foundation if you want to learn other romance languages.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Portuguese

Urdu – 231.3 Million Speakers

Urdu is an Indo-Iranian language with 230 million speakers. It’s the official language of Pakistan and it’s also recognized as an official regional or secondary language in India, where speakers of both languages can understand one another.

Urdu has adopted several words directly from English, including airport, file, science, corrupt, bus, and library. English has also adopted words from Urdu and Hindi, like pajamas and khaki.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Urdu

Indonesian – 199 Million Speakers

Indonesia is the fourth most populated nation in the world, which is why Indonesian is one of the most spoken languages in the world. You may also hear people refer to Indonesia as bahasa baku, which is the standard dialect in Indonesia.

When you speak Indonesian, you will also be able to communicate with people in Malaysia and Brunei because it is very similar to the Malay language.

It is also by far one of the easiest Asian languages to learn when compared to other widely-spoken languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai.

RELATED: Best Apps to Learn Indonesian

German – 134.6 Million Speakers

German is an official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium (along with Dutch and French), Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg. People also speak it in parts of Italy and Poland.

German is a language of business, and speaking German can open up many opportunities to work in large companies anywhere in the world. Some of the biggest car manufacturers come from Germany, including Audi, Volkswagen, and Mercedes.

It is also the second most spoken language in scientific research. Germany is a significant contributor to international research and development efforts, and welcomes scientists from abroad to work in fellowships throughout Germany.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn German

Japanese – 125.4 Million Speakers

You can probably guess that Japanese is the most common language spoken in Japan, but did you know it’s not actually the official language? Japan does not recognize any language as its official language.

Japan is a very technologically-advanced nation, so if you’re interested in technology, especially robotics, learning Japanese will be very advantageous. Japanese inventors file around 420,000 technology patents every year!

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Japanese

Nigerian Pidgin – 120.7 Million Speakers

Nigerian Pidgin is a lingua franca, which means that it’s a bridge language. It’s a way for the more than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria to communicate, but it’s not recognized as an official language in Nigeria.

It’s most closely related to English, but different ethnic groups will incorporate words from their native languages, which means it can vary from speaker to speaker. Nigerian Pidgin has become such a common language in Nigeria and across the West African Coast that BBC has started publishing news in pidgin.

Marathi – 99.1 Million Speakers

Marathi is the language of people in Maharashtra, India. It’s also a common language in the state of Goa, as well as several government and semi-government organizations throughout India.

Even though it’s one of the most spoken languages, Marathi’s geographical reach is relatively small compared to some of the other languages on this list. It’s one of the oldest languages on the planet though, which is cool in and of itself!

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Marathi

Telugu – 95.7 Million Speakers

Telugu is a language with approximately 96 million speakers in India. It’s an interesting language for a variety of reasons. It has its own script – this helps it be an independent language and there are very few similarities to other languages.

The words are also written in syllables rather than letters. In fact, there are 60 different symbols in the Telugu writing system. Telugu is also one of the oldest languages on the planet, like Marathi.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Telugu

Turkish – 88.1 Million Speakers

Even though Turkish may not be the most popular language to learn, it is an important language to learn. It’s related to languages like Azerbaijani, Turkmen, and Uzbek. Learning Turkish will open up many opportunities for trade and business in these regions.

The Turkish language itself has a rich history that stretches back nearly 1,500 years. One of the most interesting aspects of the Turkish language is that it has 29 different letters, and it only started using the Latin alphabet in 1928.

RELATED: Best Apps to Learn Turkish

Tamil – 86.4 Million Speakers

The Tamil language is one of the oldest languages on the planet (like the other Indian languages on this list), with roots that stretch back nearly 1,500 years! It’s one of the most spoken languages in India with 85 million speakers. It’s also an official language in Singapore and Sri Lanka.

As Tamil belongs to the Dravidian family, it has a lot of similarities with other languages like Kannada and Malayalam. It is also related to some of the other languages spoken in Sri Lanka.

Yue Chinese – 85.6 Million Speakers

Yue Chinese is a language with origins from ancient Chinese. It has 85 million speakers primarily in the Guangdong province of China, Taiwan and also in Malaysia.

Yue was originally brought to coastal areas of what is now called southern China by traders when it first developed around 1000 BC – 400BC. Yue descends from both Mandarin and Cantonese dialects, so there are strong similarities between these languages which developed independently for over the past 2,500 years!

Vietnamese – 85.3 Million Speakers

The Vietnamese language is a tonal language spoken by 85.3 million people. Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet with a total of 29 letters, as well as a number of different accents.

Vietnamese evolved from ancient languages that were spoken in southern China and it has been influenced over time by Chinese, French, and English. It originated during the first millennium, but it was only written down in Romanized script in 1918.

However, it didn’t stop here- the Vietnamese continued to add to their script which led to new symbols being developed like six tones that are used in the language today.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Vietnamese

Tagalog – 82.3 Million Speakers

Tagalog is spoken as a first language by only a quarter of Filipinos but spoken as a second language by the majority of the rest of the population. It’s also referred to as Filipino and is a national language of the Philippines along with English.

Tagalog belongs to the Austronesian language family and is closely related to other languages like Malagasy, Javanese, and Malay

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Tagalog

Wu Chinese – 81.8 Million Speakers

Wu is a group of dialects that are part of the larger language family called Sino-Tibetan. The Wu dialects have been spoken for over 2,500 years and are related to languages like Cantonese and Mandarin, which developed independently.

Wu is classified as a literary language in the modern era, but it’s not used in schools primarily because there was no unified written form for the entire dialect for many centuries.

Unlike Mandarin, Wu speakers don’t use simplified Chinese characters. There are few similarities to Mandarin, and Wu’s vocabulary has many loan words from other languages like Japanese or Vietnamese.

Korean – 81.7 Million Speakers

The Korean language is related to the Altaic languages, which are spoken in countries like Turkey, Russia and Japan. The earliest written form of Korean appeared in 1446 CE during the Joseon Dynasty.

There are at least 82 million speakers of Korean all over the world – more than half of them live in Korea, while others live in China, the United States, Canada and elsewhere.

The Korean alphabet is called Hangul and it was invented between 1443-1444 CE by King Sejong. Hangul’s popularity is largely due to its simplicity; it has 24 letters and each letter corresponds to a sound (unlike English, where there are 26 letters that can have multiple sounds).

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Korean

Iranian Persian (Farsi) – 77.4 Million Speakers

The Persian language is a group of related languages that are spoken either in Iran or by Iranian people all over the world. The most widely spoken dialects of this language include Western and Eastern varieties, with other closely related languages like Kurdish, Pashto, Ossetic and Tati.

The earliest written form of Persian appeared during the Sassanid Era (226-651 CE). However, its usage declined during the Islamic era until it became popular again between 1925-1935 under Reza Shah’s dynasty. Reza Shah made Farsi a required school subject for all children in Iran.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Farsi

Hausa – 77.1 Million Speakers

The Hausa language is one of the few African languages that has a literary tradition. In fact, there are over 77 million speakers of this Niger-Congo language! It also has two different writing systems – the Latin-style boko script and the Arabic-influenced ajami script..

There is no universal standard for pronunciation, however, so you’ll find that each country has its own way of speaking and writing the language.

Egyptian Spoken Arabic– 74.8 Million Speakers

Even though Modern Standard Arabic is number 6 on this list with 274 million speakers, that number doesn’t include dialects, like the type of Arabic spoken in Egypt by 74.9 million people.

Also referred to as Egyptian or Masri, it’s the most widely-understood dialect because of Egypt’s cultural influence on cinema and music. Egyptian Arabic is also the most-studied variety of Arabic.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Arabic

Swahili – 71.4 Million Speakers

The Swahili language is a Bantu language spoken by 71.4 million people, primarily in Eastern Africa and the Comoros Islands. It’s also found in pockets elsewhere around the world. Swahili has different dialects, including Coastal, Kiunga, and Wete.

Swahili speakers have a vast variety of pronunciations, so it’s difficult to create one standard that everyone could use!

The coastal dialect has heavy influences from the Arabic language and is mainly spoken by Muslims living on the east coast of Africa. Kiunga incorporates English words into its grammar while Wete contains words from Portuguese and Arabic languages.

Javanese – 68.3 Million Speakers

Javanese is spoken mainly on the island of Java, an Indonesian island. There are 3 main dialects: Central Javanese, Eastern Javanese, and Western Javanese. Most Javanese speakers also speak Indonesian for official purposes and to speak with the non-Javanese speakers in their country.

There are a concentrated number of Javanese speakers in Malaysia and Singapore, and there are even immigrant communities that speak Javanese as far away as Sri Lanka and Suriname.

Italian – 67.9 Million Speakers

The Italian language is a Romance language spoken by 68 million people all over the world. It’s also the official language of Italy, Switzerland, and San Marino.

Italian developed from Latin and it has been heavily influenced by French. The Italian alphabet consists of 21 letters with 5 vowels and 16 consonants.

Italian has been a popular language to learn for centuries. It is a beautiful and romantic language that is full of history, food, art, and fashion!

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Italian

Western Punjabi – 66.4 Million Speakers

Punjabi is divided into 2 different dialects. Western Punjabi is spoken as a first language in the Punjab province of Pakistan, and Easter Punjabi is spoken mostly in the Punjab state in India. Western Punjabi is not considered an official language of Pakistan, so Punjabi speakers use Urdu or English for official purposes. 

While Punjabi is largely based on Sanskrit, Western Punjabi has many loan words Persian, Arabic, and Urdu because of its proximity to these languages.

Kannada – 64 Million Speakers

Kannada is mostly spoken in the southwestern area of India. It’s an official language in the state of Karnataka.

Kannada is one of the oldest languages in the world and has influenced many modern languages that are spoken today. In fact, it was being spoken long before English and Hindi. It’s a unique language because there are 10 vowels and every word ends in a vowel.

Gujarati – 62 Million Speakers

This language is mainly spoken by the Gujarati people in the state of Gujarat in India. It’s an Indo-European language and is over 1000 years old.

Although it’s one of the most spoken languages in the world, only about 5% of Indians speak it. There are large Gujarati-speaking communities outside of India, especially in some African countries and England. Gujarati was the native language of Mahatma Gandhi!

Thai – 60.7 Million Speakers

Thai is one of the most studied languages in Southeast Asia. The earliest written form of Thai appeared in 1292 CE during the Ayutthaya era.

Thai can be a little difficult for English speakers to learn. This is because Thai has many sounds that don’t exist in our language – such as consonants pronounced with a throaty sound or vowels opened almost like a whistle. Some are similar sounding while others are more difficult to distinguish at first glance.

RELATED: The Best Apps to Learn Thai

Why Should You Learn the Most Spoken Languages in the World?

It’s important to learn another language because it can help you in many ways. For example, knowing about another culture is a huge advantage because it provides an opportunity to understand how others think and understand what they care about. Understanding their principles will allow you to see things from their perspective.

Learning another language can also help you to stay mentally focused. It’s stimulating for your brain and keeps your mind sharp! Learning another language also opens up new opportunities, like being able to move to a new country or work with international companies. You never know when opportunities will pop up so you should always be prepared for anything!

Conclusion

If you want to learn a new language, there are plenty of options. The most spoken languages in the world span all corners of the globe and include Thai (spoken by 60.7 million people), Spanish (spoken by 548 million people), and Mandarin Chinese (spoken by 1.12 billion speakers).

And if you’re not sure where to start, I can help! I’ve created these language guides to help you speak another language fluently, quickly, and easily. All it takes is deciding which language you want to learn!