List of languages by total number of speakers - Wikipedia, the free encyc...

1 of 4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_s...

List of languages by total number of speakers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A number of sources have compiled lists of languages by their number of speakers. However, all such lists
should be used with caution.
First, it is difficult to define exactly what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example,
Chinese and Arabic are sometimes considered single languages and sometimes language families.
Similarly, Hindi is sometimes considered a single language or a family including Mewari, Chattisgarhi,
Bhojpuri etc., but together with Urdu it also is often considered a single language Hindustani.
Second, there is no single criterion for how much knowledge is sufficient to be counted as a secondlanguage speaker. For example, English has about 340 million native speakers but, depending on the
criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as 2 billion speakers.[1]

Contents
1
2
3
4

Ethnologue (2015, 18th edition)

See also
References
External links

Ethnologue (2015, 18th edition)

The following languages are listed as having 50 million or more native speakers in the 2015 edition of
Ethnologue, a language reference published by SIL International.[2] Speaker totals are generally not reliable, as
they add together estimates from different dates and (usually uncited) sources; language information is not
collected on most national censuses.

05-May-16 10:49 AM

List of languages by total number of speakers - Wikipedia, the free encyc...

2 of 4

Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_s...

Family
all varieties of Chinese

L1 speakers

L2 speakers

Total

1,200 million

Mandarin Chinese

Sino-Tibetan, Chinese

900 million

190 million in
China

1,090 million

English

Indo-European, Germanic

339 million

603 million

942 million

Spanish

Indo-European, Romance

430 million

91 million

518 million

Arabic

Afro-Asiatic, Semitic

240 million (no 250 million

date)
(1999)

490 million

Modern Standard
Hindi

Indo-European, Indo-Aryan,
Hindustani (essentially same
language as Urdu)

260 million
(2001)

120 million in
India (1999)

380 million

Russian

Indo-European, Slavic

170 million
(ca. 2010)

92 million (ca.
262 million
2010)

French

Indo-European, Romance

76 million (ca. 153 million

2015)
(2015)

229 million

Malay (incl.
Indonesian and
Malaysian)

Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian

60 million (no
date)

150 million
(2010)

210 million

Portuguese

Indo-European, Romance

202 million
(2010)

6 million

209 million

Bengali

Indo-European, Indo-Aryan

189 million
(20012011)

19 million in
Bangladesh
(2011)

208 million

Urdu

Indo-European, Indo-Aryan,
Hindustani (essentially same
language as Hindi)

64 million
(19982001)

94 million in
160 million
Pakistan (1999)

Japanese

Japonic

130 million

0.0115 million
130 million
(2010)[3]

Lahnda (incl. Western

Indo-European, Indo-Aryan
Punjabi)

117 million (no

?
date)

Standard German

Indo-European, Germanic

78 million
(2012)

Javanese

Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian

84 million
(2000)

84 million

Telugu

Dravidian

74 million
(2001)

5 million in
79 million
India (no date)

Tamil

Dravidian

69 million
(2001)

8 million in
77 million
India (no date)

8 million in
Germany
(2012)

117 million

86 million

05-May-16 10:49 AM

List of languages by total number of speakers - Wikipedia, the free encyc...

3 of 4

Language

Family

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_s...

L1 speakers

L2 speakers

Total

Korean

Koreanic

77 million
(20082010)

77 million

Wu Chinese (incl.
Shanghainese)

Sino-Tibetan, Chinese

77 million
(1984)

77 million

Marathi

Indo-European, Indo-Aryan

72 million
(2001)

3 million in
75 million
India (no date)

Turkish

Turkic, Oghuz

71 million
(2006)

0.3 million in
Turkey

Vietnamese

Austroasiatic, VietMuong

68 million
(1999)

Italian

Indo-European, Romance

64 million
(2015)

Yue Chinese (incl.

Cantonese)

Sino-Tibetan, Chinese

62 million
(19842006)

Persian

Indo-European, Indo-Aryan

Egyptian Arabic

Afro-Asiatic, Semitic

71 million
68 million

3 million
(2015)

67 million

57 million
(2011)

55 million
(2006)

The distinction Ethnologue uses for Eastern and Western Panjabi is the national border, which does not
correspond to the linguistic distinction. Hindi and Urdu are essentially a single language; however, 100 million
non-Hindustani speakers are included under "Hindi", which is therefore not a single language. Hausa has 25
million L1 total and 15 million L2 in Nigeria, and so approaches our limit of 50 million. Coastal Swahili has 15
million L1 in Tanzania (2012) and "probably over 80% of rural" Tanzania as L2, not counting Kenya or the 10
million L2 speakers of Congo Swahili (1999), so it also approaches our limit.

See also
Linguistic demography
Lists of endangered languages - with the fewest numbers of speakers
Lists of languages
List of languages without official status by total number of speakers
List of languages by number of native speakers
World language

References
1. Crystal, David (March 2008). "Two thousand million?". English Today. doi:10.1017/S0266078408000023.
2. "Summary by language size". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
3. "Japanese". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2016-03-07.

External links

05-May-16 10:49 AM

List of languages by total number of speakers - Wikipedia, the free encyc...

4 of 4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_s...

Most Widely Spoken Languages (http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm)

The Worlds 10 most influential Languages (http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber
/rep-weber.htm) by George Weber
(French) Qu'est-ce que la Francophonie? (http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/francophonie/francophonie.htm)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers&
oldid=717022275"
Categories: Lists of languages
This page was last modified on 25 April 2016, at 07:48.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

05-May-16 10:49 AM