Top 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World

Of the people on the planet, only ten languages are claimed as the mother tongue by over half of them.

It turns out that figuring out which languages are spoken most frequently around the world is harder than you may think. There will be some surprises, but we can fairly confidently predict that Mandarin, English, Spanish, and Arabic will be used (as well as roughly in what order). Could you have predicted that Bengali ranks among the top ten languages spoken worldwide?

One tiny warning: It is nearly difficult to assign "X million native speakers" or any hard figures to any of these languages. The definition of a language or dialect is a contentious topic. What's more concerning is that the term "Chinese" actually refers to a group of languages that are neatly grouped together into a single category, rather than a single language. A catch-all word for a variety of dialects and sub-dialects is "Hindi." The inaccuracy of data sources gathered at various times by various agencies hasn't even been acknowledged yet. The figures below were gathered by Ethnologue, which is regarded as the most comprehensive collection of language data available at the moment.

Who doesn't, however, enjoy a good list? We have therefore prepared two versions for you.

The Top Ten Languages With The Most Native Speakers

These are the most widely spoken languages in the world when counting solely native speakers.

1. Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers

There's no denying that Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world, even if estimates ranging from 900 million to 1.3 billion native speakers are reported by Ethnologue. This is the language to learn if you want to talk with one in six individuals worldwide. You'll be occupied for sure because Chinese is a tonal language that employs thousands of logograms.

2. Spanish — 486 Million Native Speakers

With over 486 million speakers, Spanish is more common than English among native speakers. Spanish is your best bet if you desire a language that will allow you to travel across entire continents. The politics of language and related identity are hotly debated, as is the case with all the languages on this list. Ask speakers of Catalan or Quechua if Spanish is their native tongue, and you'll likely receive a totally different response. However, it is undoubtedly the official language of Spain, a good portion of the United States, and most of South and Central America.

3. English — 380 Million Native Speakers

You could be one of the billion people who speak English as a second language or one of the 380 million or so native speakers who are reading this post. This demonstrates how well English has performed in its role as the universal language of commerce, travel, and international relations. Being the most widely used official language worldwide, it is also the most prevalent language in the world. English will continue to rule the international scene for the foreseeable future due to its relative ease of learning (particularly when compared to Chinese) and the ubiquitous soft power of American culture. English continues to be associated with opportunity and a higher standard of living for some people.

4. Arabic — 362 Million Native Speakers

According to recent estimates, there are 362 million native speakers of Arabic. However, here's another example where the stats don't convey the whole story: Similar to Chinese, Arabic's dialects range so greatly from one another that they are actually several languages combined into one for convenience's sake. Closely linked to the Classical Arabic of the Quran, Modern Standard Arabic is mainly written. Still, spoken Arabic in Morocco and Oman, for example, differs so much that a couple of philosophy professors from these nations may debate the subtleties of the old texts while still having trouble placing an order for lunch.

5. Hindi — 345 Million Native Speakers

India has twenty-three official languages, the most common being Hindi and Urdu. There is ongoing, intense disagreement over whether Hindustani is one language or two dialects. Urdu utilizes Persian notation, while Hindi, which is primarily spoken in northern India and some areas of Pakistan, uses Devnagri script. A little Hindi will go a long way if you ever travel to the Indian subcontinent. What's not to love? After all, this language brought us shampoo, the jungle, jodhpurs, and bungalows.

6. Bengali — 237 Million Native Speakers

Admit it: you were surprised to see Bengali on the list of languages most spoken. Bengal was separated into two parts by the British in 1947: West Bengal, which is now a part of India, and East Bengal, which is now Bangladesh. West Bengal was predominantly Hindu. It is the language of 130 million or more Bangladeshis, many of whom are highly vulnerable to climate change, Kolkata, the Andaman Islands, and delicious sweets. The population is predicted to quadruple over the next century, and 15% of the land area is predicted to perish under the increasing seas.

7. Portuguese — 236 Million Native Speakers

This language's popularity is also largely due to its colonial heritage. Enthusiastic Portuguese conquerors and traders began bringing their language to Africa, Asia, and the Americas in the fifteenth century. Although European colonization was primarily responsible for the expansion of Portuguese, the colonized nations' dynamic cultures permanently altered the language. Currently, 236 million people who are native speakers of Portuguese speak it in places like Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Brazil, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In addition, Machado de Assis, Bossa Nova, Mia Couto, Fernando Pessoa, and Agualusa all speak it.

8. Russian — 148 Million Native Speakers

Russian is currently the tenth most spoken language in the world, with about 148 million native speakers. Renowned for its enigmatic syntax and exquisite Cyrillic handwriting, it continues to be one of the six languages utilized inside the United Nations, and has given rise to notable writers such as Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Chekhov, Gogol, Tolstoy, and Pushkin.

9. Japanese — 123 Million Native Speakers

Of all the languages on this list, Japanese is the most geographically concentrated, with around 123 million native speakers living in Japan. Japanese uses a lot of Chinese Kanji characters and has two unique writing systems: hiragana and katakana. The United States, the Philippines, and Brazil are home to the biggest concentrations of Japanese speakers living outside of Japan.

10. Lahnda (Western Punjabi) — 118 Million Native Speakers

Approximately 118 million native speakers, according to various estimations, occupy the final position on the list. Western Punjabi is the main language spoken in Lahnda, a macrolanguage of Pakistan! (Apologies, German—you were kicked out of the top world languages a few years ago.) Not even the Indian dialect of Eastern Punjabi is included in that. When the British left, they split the Punjab in two, forcing millions of people to leave their homes, businesses, and families behind. However, they're gradually exacting their revenge in true Bollywood fashion: half of the top songs on the charts right now are Punjabi tunes. If ever a comeback was made, it is it.

Top 10 Languages With The Most Speakers Overall

Eight of the ten languages from the previous list still appear when we rank the top 10 most spoken languages based on the total number of speakers (regardless of whether the language is their mother tongue)—but with some notable exceptions: Because more individuals speak French and Indonesian as second languages than as their native tongues, they join the top 10 languages, while Chinese loses ground to English for the top slot.

One thing to consider before we enumerate the factors is the official language status. English is elevated to the top spot due to its status as the most widely used official language, as previously indicated. Because of this, French, the second most popular language, also breaks into the top 10. This is a result of the official languages of many nations being second languages that individuals acquire to bridge differences between various groups within a single country, rather than being the native tongue of the majority of people. However, this does not imply that all official languages are natively spoken by large populations. With 37 official languages, Bolivia is the nation with the most; nonetheless, only Spanish appears in this list's top 10. The remaining languages are primarily indigenous dialects that are safeguarded by official status.

1. English

1.515 billion total speakers

2. Mandarin Chinese

1.140 billion total speakers

3. Hindi

609 million total speakers

4. Spanish

559 million total speakers

5. Standard Arabic

332 million total speakers

6. French

312 million total speakers

7. Bengali

278 million total speakers

8. Portuguese

264 million total speakers

9. Russian

255 million total speakers

10. Urdu

238 million total speakers