The Ethnologue 200

For over 15 years, we've published a list of the largest languages in the world – often cited by top-tier publications. Chances are, if you've seen a website or blog listing the "largest" or "most spoken" languages, it was from one iteration or another of our list.

The Ethnologue 200 accounts for most of the world's population. Over 88% of people speak one of these languages as their native tongue, and many hundreds of millions more speak them as second languages. This ranking accounts for both, showing the total usage worldwide.