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List of official languages. See also: List of languages by the number of countries in which they are recognized as an official language. This is a list of official, or otherwise administratively-recognized, languages of sovereign countries, regions, and supra-national institutions.
- Ranked: The 100 Most Spoken Languages Worldwide
- How Do You Define A Language?
- Which Languages Have The Most speakers?
- What About Second (L2) Languages?
- Keeping Language Traditions Alive
Even though you’re reading this article in English, there’s a good chance it might not be your mother tongue. Of the billion-strong English speakers in the world, only 33%consider it their native language. The popularity of a language depends greatly on utility and geographic location. Additionally, how we measure the spread of world languages can ...
The data comes from the 22nd edition of Ethnologue, a database covering a majority of the world’s population, detailing approximately 7,111living languages in existence today. The definitions of languages are often dynamic, blurring the lines around a singular understanding of what makes a language: 1. Linguistic: focused on lexical and grammatical...
It comes as no surprise that English reigns supreme, with over 1.1 billiontotal speakers—or roughly 15% of the global population. Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, and French round out the top five. However, this is only one piece in the full fabric of languages. The metrics for native speakers tell a slightly different tale, as Mandarin Chinese sh...
Nearly 43%of the world’s population is bilingual, with the ability to switch between two languages with ease. From the data, second language (L2) speakers can be calculated by looking at the difference between native and total speakers, as a proportion of the total. For example, 66% of Englishspeakers learned it as a second language. Swahili surpri...
Languages are fluid, and constantly evolving—altogether, the 100 most spoken languages paint a unique picture across centuries of a changing world. Here’s the full listof these languages, by types of speakers and language origin. One reason these languages are popular is that they are actively and consistently used. Unfortunately, nearly 3,000(abou...
Learn about the diversity, distribution and history of languages around the world. Find out how many languages there are, which ones are the most widely spoken, and which ones are endangered or extinct.
Languages with at least 50 million first-language speakers; Language Native speakers (in millions) Language family Branch Mandarin Chinese: 941 Sino-Tibetan: Sinitic: Spanish: 486 Indo-European: Romance: English: 380 Indo-European: Germanic: Hindi: 345 Indo-European: Indo-Aryan: Bengali: 237 Indo-European: Indo-Aryan: Portuguese: 236 Indo ...
LanguageNative Speakers (in Millions)Language FamilyBranch941486380345Most spoken languages, Ethnologue, 2023; 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: 1.456 billion Mandarin Chinese (incl. Standard Chinese, but excl. other varieties) Sino-Tibetan: Sinitic: 939 million
LanguageFamilyBranchFirst-language (l1) SpeakersEnglish (excl. creole languages )380 millionMandarin Chinese (incl. Standard Chinese, ...939 millionHindi (excl. Urdu )345 millionSpanish (excl. creole languages )485 millionPeople also ask
What languages are spoken in the world?
How many languages are there?
What languages are native speakers?
Which language is the number 1 in the world?
Comprehensive list of 6000 languages from every country in the world including information on the number of speakers, countries and ISO codes.
Explore the linguistic diversity of the world with the World Atlas of Languages, an interactive and dynamic online platform that documents languages by type, structure, affiliation, situation, state and functions. Learn how the World Atlas of Languages collects and analyzes data from official sources and how it can inform and support language policies and actions.
