The 10 Most Spoken Languages in the World
See a top 10 list for 2025 here
Have you ever wondered which languages are the most spoken throughout the world? You’re not the only one! Every year, Ethnologue, a leader in language statistics, presents an overview of the most spoken languages in the world.
When looking at number of speakers, it's important to distinguish between native speakers and second-language speakers. Unsurprisingly, English is the most spoken language when both native and non-native speakers are counted. When counting only native speakers, however, Mandarin (Chinese) takes first place. In this article, we present the 10 most spoken languages in the world based on both native and second-language speakers.
| # | Language | SPOKEN BY | Countries the language is spoken in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | 1.5 billion | USA, Australia, UK, India, Singapore and Philippines |
| 2 | Mandarin (Chinese) | 1.1 billion | China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia |
| 3 | Hindi | 608.8 million | India and Nepal |
| 4 | Spanish | 559.5 million | Spain, Mexico, USA and large parts of Central and South America |
| 5 | Arabic | 332.5 million | Most of the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq) and parts of North Africa (Egypt, Algeria) |
| 6 | French | 311.6 million | France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada as well as Congo, Madagascar and Cameroon |
| 7 | Bengali | 278.2 million | Bangladesh and India |
| 8 | Portuguese | 263.8 million | Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique |
| 9 | Russian | 255.4 million | Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Israel |
| 10 | Urdu | 237.9 million | India and Pakistan |
1. English – 1.5 billion
English is the lingua franca of the western world; it's the language people who speak different languages most often use to communicate with each other.
English tops the list of the most spoken languages in the world when both native and non-native speakers are included. This number one ranking can partly be attributed to the internet, which has expanded the use of the English language and made it so accessible that it is now considered a global language.
The language has a huge impact and comes in many variants. In addition to American, British and Australian English, there is also Hinglish (a mixture of Hindi and English) in India and Singlish (Singaporean English) in Singapore. English is one of the official languages in these countries, which is why a mix of English and the other language is spoken there.
English belongs to the Indo-European language family, specifically to the Germanic branch. Danish and the other Scandinavian languages are also Germanic languages, which makes it easy (or at least easier) for Scandinavians to learn English. The many Nordic loanwords in English, such as husband, egg and foot, also make it easier for Scandinavians to recognise and understand English words and the language in general.
2. Mandarin (Chinese) – 1.1 billion
Mandarin is a collective term for a group of dialects in China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. The Chinese language is divided into Mandarin and Cantonese, the latter of which is a common dialect in Hong Kong. Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family and differs greatly from European languages. One major difference is that Chinese is a tonal language, where tone of voice alone can change the meaning of a word. Plus, Chinese doesn't have an alphabet, which makes it difficult for non-natives to learn.
You might be wondering how Chinese can be written without an alphabet. This is because there are several types of writing systems, of which the Latin alphabet is just one. There are other writing systems besides alphabets, including the Chinese writing system called Hànzì. In the Chinese writing system, each character represents a syllable, so a single character or combination of characters forms a word.
Chinese is also a classic example of a tonal language. In such languages, intonation is used to distinguish between meanings. For example, the syllable ma has four different meanings depending on intonation: mā means 'mother', má means 'hemp', mǎ means 'horse', and mà means 'to scold'.
3. Hindi – 608.8 million
Hindi, like English, is one of the 22 official languages of India.
India is the second most linguistically diverse country in the world, after Papua New Guinea. India has 22 official languages, but these only scratch the surface of India’s linguistic diversity. There are reportedly hundreds of languages in India – some studies claim that there are up to 780 languages in India alone!
You might think that Indian languages have nothing in common with European languages, but there is actually a connection. Hindi, like many other languages in India, belongs to the Indo-European language family. This means that Hindi is a distant relative of most European languages, including Scandinavian languages and English.
Hindi is one of several languages spoken in northern India, while most people in southern India neither speak nor understand Hindi.
4. Spanish – 559.5 million
Most people know that Spanish is spoken in Spain and throughout Latin America. But due to past colonisation, Spanish is also spoken in parts of Morocco and Equatorial Guinea.
And some might be surprised to learn that the US is now home to more Spanish speakers than Spain or Colombia. In fact, by 2060, the US is expected to have the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, second only to Mexico.
Spanish belongs to the Indo-European language family, specifically the Romance branch of Indo-European, and therefore bears many similarities to languages such as Italian and French.
Spanish wasn't always called Spanish. The Spanish themselves called their own language 'Cristiano', which means 'Christian'. In addition to the Spanish-speaking inhabitants, the Iberian Peninsula was also home to many Arabic and Hebrew-speaking Muslims and Jews. Spanish was spoken primarily by Christians; thus the name ´Christiano’ was born.
Spanish is the only language in the world that uses inverted question marks and exclamation marks.
These inverted marks are used in Spanish to 'alert' readers that a question or exclamation is coming, and that they should change their tone of voice. That's because Spanish doesn’t use inverted word order for questions. In Spanish, 'She speaks Spanish' is Ella habla español and the same is true for the sentence 'Does she speak Spanish?’ The only difference between the two examples is that the sentence 'Does she speak Spanish' is framed by question marks – with an inverted one at the beginning of the question – i.e. ¿Ella habla español?
5. Arabic – 332.5 million
Arabic is the official language of 26 countries and is particularly prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa. The language has many dialects. That's why it's not uncommon for two Arabic speakers from different countries to have difficulty understanding each other. Arabic also plays an important role in Islam, as the Quran was written in classical Arabic in the 7th century.
The Arabic language belongs to what is known as the Afro-Asiatic language family, specifically the Semitic branch, which includes Hebrew. The structure of the Arabic language is very different from that of European languages.
To name just one example, Arabic uses something called consonantal roots. The roots indicate a specific topic, which allows related words to be formed. For example, both the word for 'write' and the word for 'book' come from the root sequence k-t-b. Here the root meaning can be changed by inserting vowels, e.g. 'book' becomes kitāb, while 'he wrote' becomes kataba.
Two other special characteristics of written Arabic are that the language is written from right to left, and is not case-sensitive like the Latin alphabet.
6. French – 311.6 million
French is spoken in 29 countries across several continents. In addition to European countries such as France, Switzerland and Belgium, French is also spoken in Canada and many African countries such as Congo, Madagascar and Cameroon. As with most other European languages, the spread of the language to Africa and Asia is a result of colonisation. French is spoken in Congo as a vestige of Belgian colonisation, while French colonisation is responsible for the use of French in Cameroon and Madagascar.
As a French speaker, you'll recognise a lot of French-sounding words in English, even though the two languages are not closely related. English is a Germanic language, while French is a Romance language.
Words like poultry, beef and pork are all borrowed from French. You might wonder why these aren’t simply calledcow meat or pig meat. But loanwords aren’t always born solely of necessity. Many French words were incorporated into English not for a lack of words, but because French was perceived as more elegant and prestigious.
But be careful: although there are many similar words in French and English, you can't always assume they mean the same thing. There are many so-called false friends scattered throughout the two languages.
The expression false friends describes to a phenomenon where words with similar or identical spellings in two different languages do not mean the same thing. For example, the English word preservative refers to a chemical or process that prolongs shelf-life, while the French word préservatif means 'condom'! Likewise, the French word pain means 'bread', while the English word with the exact same spelling refers to an aching discomfort. To learn more about false friends in other languages, check out our article on differences between British and American English.
7. Bengali – 278.2 million
Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and one of the many official languages of India, where it is primarily spoken in the eastern part of the country.
Bengali, like Hindi, belongs to the Indo-European language family, specifically the Indo-Iranian languages.
Although Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh today, it wasn't always like that. Bangladesh is a young country with a turbulent history.
When India gained independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan was created of two non-contiguous territories, East Pakistan and West Pakistan, that shared the common religion Islam. During the following years, tensions between East and West Pakistan intensified, especially regarding language policy. West Pakistan wanted Urdu to be the only official language, while East Pakistan demanded that both Bengali and Urdu be recognised as official languages.
This led to violent protests and military operations that ended with East Pakistan seceding from Pakistan to become the independent country we today know as Bangladesh. The history of the Bengali language and the struggle for recognition is thus an integral part of Bangladesh’s identity, and even reflected in its name.
8. Portuguese – 263.8 million
Portuguese is widely spoken in many countries due to Portugal's history as a colonial power. It is well-known that Portuguese is spoken in Portugal and Brazil, but the language is also used in several African countries, such as Angola, Cape Verde and Mozambique. The language is closely related to both French and Spanish, which are also featured on the list of the most spoken languages in the world.
Portuguese belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family and has many similarities with French and Spanish. Yet it stands out with its own unique features. Portuguese has retained some inflectional forms from Latin that many of its close relatives no longer use.
There are also significant differences between the Portuguese spoken in Brazil and that spoken in Portugal, similar to the differences between American and British English. Like other Romance languages, Portuguese has both formal and informal forms of address. This can be a challenge, even for native speakers, as the use of these forms varies between the two countries. A Portuguese traveller visiting Brazil could easily misspeak and unintentionally offend someone.
9. Russian – 255.4 million
Russia is not only spoken in Russia, it is also the official language of Kazakhstan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. It is also spoken to varying degrees in many former Soviet republics. Surprisingly, Russian is even found on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic!
Russian is the only language on this list belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of Indo-European languages, alongside Ukrainian, Polish and Czech. Like other Balto-Slavic languages, Russian is written using the Cyrillic alphabet. The alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet and follows the same system as the Latin alphabet – unlike a number of other languages on this list.
Russian is known for its complex grammar. Nouns and adjectives can be declined in up to six different ways and in three genders. Russian employs what is known as a case system, which you may recognise from German. However, Russian has several more cases, including instrumentalis. This case is used to describe the 'instrument' used for an action, or in other words, 'with what' you do something. For example, the phrase писать ручкой means 'to write with a pen'. The preposition 'with' is superfluous here, as the word is already inflected in instrumentalis, thus indicating its function.
10. Urdu – 237.9 million
Urdu, like the other South Asian languages on this list, belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. Hindi and Urdu are so similar that speakers of each language can often understand each other. Some might argue that they are the same language, but for socio-cultural and political reasons, they are now considered separate languages. Not only is Urdu the official language of Pakistan, as mentioned earlier, but is also one of the official languages of India and spoken in several other South Asian countries.
The differences between Hindi and Urdu are comparable to the differences between Norwegian and Danish. Norwegians and Danes can understand each other, but there are differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. Similarly, Hindi and Urdu share many similarities, but they differ in spelling and vocabulary.
And just as Norway was part of Denmark for many years, Pakistan was also part of India until 1947.
Despite similarities in speech, however, Hindi and Urdu do not share the same writing system. Hindi uses the writing system calledDevanagari, while Urdu uses Arabic script. As a result, speakers of Hindi and speakers of Urdu often find it difficult to read and understand each other in writing.
But it has not always been like this. It was not until the early 1800s that Hindus started writing the language in Devanagari. Today, Hindi is primarily considered the language of Hindus, while Urdu is considered the language of Muslims in India and Pakistan.
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