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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 official or endangered.
- 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...
List of languages by the number of countries in which they are the most widely used. This is a ranking of languages by number of sovereign countries in which they are de jure or de facto official, co-official, an administrative or working language.
The following languages are listed as having at least 50 million first-language speakers in the 27th edition of Ethnologue published in 2024. [7] This section does not include entries that Ethnologue identifies as macrolanguages encompassing all their respective varieties, such as Arabic, Lahnda, Persian, Malay, Pashto, and Chinese .
LanguageNative Speakers (in Millions)Language FamilyBranch94148638034535,529. 6000 languages in the world | Number of speakers, countries, ISO codes. 6000+ language and dialects worldwideComprehensive list including number of speakers, countries and ISO codes. For over 99% of the 6000 languages and dialects there are today hardly any quality language learning tools available, because these languages are simply ...
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The World Atlas of Languages is an online platform that reflects the dynamism and depths of the global linguistic diversity. It provides accurate, reliable, up-to-date and robust data on the world’s languages. By taking advantage of scientific and technological progress and drawing from data offered by trusted providers, including national ...
