Top 30 languages of the world

There are approximately 6900 languages currently spoken around the world, the majority of which have only a small number of speakers. About 4 billion of the earth's 6.5 billion people, or over 60% of the earth's population, speak one of the following 30 languages as their native tongue.



Languages are ordered in the table below by numbers of native speakers. Numbers of second-language speakers are given where known. Second language speakers are those whose native language is typically a minority language of the country in which they live and who learn the second language because it is the official national language of the country where they reside.





Top 30 Languages by Number of Native Speakers Data source: Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (2005) & Wikipedia.org.

Language approximate # of speakers Where is it spoken as an official language? 1. Mandarin Chinese NATIVE: 873 million

2nd: 178 million

TOTAL: 1.051 billion OFFICIAL: People's Republic of China, Republic of China, Singapore 2. Hindi NATIVE: 370 million

2nd:120 million

TOTAL: 490 million OFFICIAL: India, Fiji 3. Spanish NATIVE: 350 million

2nd: 70 million

TOTAL: 420 million OFFICIAL: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, United States (New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela 4. English NATIVE: 340 million

TOTAL: 510 million OFFICIAL: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong (People's Republic of China), India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Maritius, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevs, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somolia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe. 5. Arabic NATIVE: 206 million

2nd: 24 million

TOTAL: 230 million



[World Almanac est. total 255 million] OFFICIAL: Modern Standard Arabic: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen. | Hasaniya Arabic: Mauritania, Senegal

NATIONAL: Mali



Note: These figures combine all the varieties of Arabic. Some data sources, e.g. CIA World Fact Book, World Almanac, Ethnologue, treat these varieties as separate languages. 6. Portuguese NATIVE: 203 million

2nd: 10 million

TOTAL: 213 million OFFICIAL: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (People's Republic of China), Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe. 7. Bengali NATIVE: 196 million

TOTAL: 215 million OFFICIAL: Bangladesh, India (Tripura, West Bengal) 8. Russian NATIVE: 145 million

2nd: 110 million

TOTAL: 255 million OFFICIAL: Abkhazia (part of Georgia), Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyyrgyzstan, Russia, Transnistria (part of Moldova). 9. Japanese NATIVE: 126 million

2nd: 1 million

TOTAL: 127 million OFFICIAL: Japan, Palau 10. German NATIVE: 101 million

2nd: 128 million

TOTAL: 229 million OFFICIAL: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy (South Tyrol), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Siwtzerland





Language # of speakers Where is it spoken as an official language? 11. Panjabi Western: 60 million

Eastern: 28 million

TOTAL: 88 million OFFICIAL: India (Punjab)

NATIONAL: Pakistan 12. Javanese 76 million OFFICIAL: Indonesia (esp. Java) 13. Korean 71 million OFFICIAL: North Korea, South Korea 14. Vietnamese NATIVE: 70 million

2nd: 16 million

TOTAL: 86 million OFFICIAL: Vietnam 15. Telugu NATIVE: 70 million

2nd: 5 million

TOTAL: 75 million OFFICIAL: India (Andhra Pradesh) 16. Marathi NATIVE: 68 million

2nd: 3 million

TOTAL: 71 million OFFICIAL: India (Daman and Diu, Goa, Maharashtra) 17. Tamil NATIVE: 68 million

2nd: 9 million

TOTAL: 77 million OFFICIAL: India (Tamil Nadu), Singapore, Sri Lanka 18. French NATIVE: 67 million

2nd: 63 million

TOTAL: 130 million OFFICIAL or NATIONAL: Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, Guernsey, Guinea, Haiti, India (Karikal, Pondicherry), Italy, Jersey, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Monaco, New Caledonia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, United States (Louisiana), Vanuatu. 19. Urdu NATIVE: 61 million

2nd: 43 million

TOTAL: 104 million OFFICIAL: India (Jammu and Kashmir), Pakistan. 20. Italian 61 million OFFICIAL: Croatia (Istria Country), Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland.







Language # of speakers Where is it spoken as an official language? 21. Turkish NATIVE: 60 million

2nd: 15 million

TOTAL: 75 million OFFICIAL: Bulgaria (Kurdzhali Province and areas of South and East Bulgaria), Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Turkey 22. Persian 54 million OFFICIAL: Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan. 23. Gujarati 46 million OFFICIAL: India (Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli). 24. Polish 46 million OFFICIAL: Poland 25. Ukrainian 39 million OFFICIAL: Ukraine, Transnistria (part of Moldova). 26. Malayalam 37 million OFFICIAL: India (Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahe). 27. Kannada NATIVE: 35 million

2nd: 9 million

TOTAL: 44 million OFFICIAL: India (Karnataka). 28. Oriya 32 million OFFICIAL: India (Orissa). 29. Burmese NATIVE: 32 million

2nd: 10 million

TOTAL: 42 million OFFICIAL: Myanmar. 30. Thai NATIVE: 20 million

2nd: 40 million

TOTAL: 60 million OFFICIAL: Thailand.

