From the speech spoken in highly populous Asian nations to the expanse of Romantic and
Germanic tongues out of Europe, today we look at the 15 Most Spoken Languages In The World.
#15 Marathi Spoken by approximately 95.3 million people
worldwide, Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language predominantly used by the Marathi people of
Maharashtra, India.
Over 83.1 million of those utilizing the language are natives to the west Indian region, including
occupants of the states of Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka and others.
Meanwhile, 12.2 million speakers claim Marathi as a second language.
It remains primarily used in India, though migrants have taken it abroad.
#14 Swahili This Bantu language is native to Africa and
traditionally spoken by the Swahili people of the same name.
Sixteen million speakers call Swahili their first language, while an additional 82.3 million
have learned it as a secondary tongue.
Speakers of this language can be found all across the African continent, from Kenya,
Tanzania and Mozambique to Uganda, Zambia and Madagascar.
While it is classified as a part of the Niger-Congo family of languages, Swahili is often referred
to as a mixed language due to the many words loaned to it from Arabic.
Much of the Swahili population has been historically Muslim and as a result, it’s only natural
for the languages to blend together.
Due to its overwhelming popularity, Swahili was one of the first African languages to
have technological applications built for its use and teaching.
#13 Japanese This East Asian tongue is uniquely of the
Japonic language family and is spoken by approximately 128 million people worldwide.
Linguists maintain that it has no direct relation to neighboring languages like Chinese and
Korean, however influence from these languages is evident in modern Japanese, both verbally
and in writing.
Another major influence on modern Japanese is the growing use of European and English
loanwords, which increased exponentially following the end of Japan’s own elective isolation.
The majority of Japanese speakers are native to the country and treat it as their first
language, while just 121,500 people have learned it as a secondary speech.
Despite the relatively little use of the language outside of Japan, dozens of dialects have
developed across the island nation.
#12 German Heard widely throughout nations like Austria,
Switzerland, Luxembourg, and of course Germany, along with parts of Belgium, Liechtenstein
and Italy, this language is the third most commonly spoken language in the European Union.
German also boasts the honor of being the third most used language online, the second-most
taught foreign language in the EU and fourth-most taught in the United States.
An estimated 76 million people learn German as their native tongue while another 56 million
adopt the language.
Collectively, it’s believed that more than 132 million people speak this language around
the world, with a broad variety of dialects developing across Europe and the rest of the
world.
It remains one of the most popular Indo-European languages in the world.
#11 Urdu Recognized as the official national language
of Pakistan, modern Urdu is the result of the Hindustani language historically tied
to Northern India and Pakistan undergoing an assimilation to Persian culture.
It first began seeing wide use as the Hindi language broke off from Hindustani as a preferred
communication method between Hinduist Indians.
Meanwhile, Muslim locals to the region would begin using Urdu to help distinguish themselves
and cultivate their own identity in the Indian landscape.
Today, over 170 million people speak Urdu, with 68.6 million learning it as a first language
and another 101.6 million picking it up as a secondary tongue.
This Indo-Aryan speech is considered to be a lingua franca, or bridging language, in
its home region, helping to connect the mixed cultures that make up India and Pakistan.
#10 Indonesian The Indonesian archipelago is home to a wide
variety of cultures and languages, and with Indonesia being the fourth most populated
country in the world, this language helps connect them all despite their differences.
Indonesian is a lingua franca, learned by over 155 million people as a second language,
allowing peoples from different backgrounds to communicate and bond in ways they otherwise
couldn’t.
Considering over 700 indigenous local languages are found throughout this region, a tool such
as the Indonesian language is crucial to bridging the gap between the distinct cultures.
With the majority of formal education, media, and governance within this country being communicated
in Indonesian, 43.3 million people have learned it as a primary language, bringing the total
number of speakers to 198.7 million!
#9 Portuguese From the Iberian Peninsula to the shores of
Brazil, from African nations like Mozambique and Angola to island sovereignties like East
Timor and Aruba, Portuguese is a tongue that sees widespread use around the planet.
While the languages homeland Portugal has just over 10 million inhabitants in total,
an astounding 220.7 million individuals learn Portuguese prior to any other language.
Regardless of its Indo-European origins, this is the most commonly spoken language in both
South America and the Southern Hemisphere as a whole!
Another 13.4 million people have worked this Romantic, Indo-European language into their
vernacular, making the aggregate number of Portuguese speakers over 234 million, the
vast majority of which come from Brazil.
#8 Russian Spoken throughout Eastern Europe, Central
Asia, and the Balkan States, this Slavic, Indo-European language is the official language
of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and, unsurprisingly, the Russian Federation.
Before December of 1991, it was the official language of the Soviet Union, and following
its breakup, Russian stuck with most, if not all, of the post-Soviet sovereignties.
It even sees common use in neighboring countries like Mongolia and Israel.
The spread of Russian across so much of Europe and Asia has seen the number of speakers grow
to 258.2 million people, of which 153.7 million learned as a primary language.
The popularity of the Russian language is so high, in fact, that it has the honor of
being one of only six official languages of the United Nations.
#7 Bengali Despite Bangladesh’s close proximity to
the multicultural nation of India, along with half a dozen other diverse Asian nations,
98% of the population is fluent in the language of Bengali.
With 228.3 million speakers learning this Indo-Aryan language as a primary speech, it
is the second-most common language of India along with being the official language of
Bangladesh.
In total, 265 million people worldwide use this language, with Bengali-speakers populating
communities as far as Pakistan, the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
#6 Standard Arabic Referred to by Western linguists as the standardized
literary variety of Arabic written and spoken today, Standard Arabic is the official language
of 27 different nations today.
In countries like Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, and other members of the Arab
League, Standard Arabic is the mandated language taught in all schools.
This has lead to more than 273 million people learning the language, however most all do
so as a secondary language, oddly enough.
This is due to most all of these communities learning a localized, colloquial version of
Arabic prior to the standard form.
Standard Arabic is primarily used to break down regional barriers Arabic speakers would
normally face when communicating with each other.
#5 French A Romantic language of Indo-European origin,
French sees intercontinental use as the official language of 29 separate countries, including
Monaco, Luxembourg, Canada, Madagascar, Rwanda, Senegal, and Switzerland.
Collectively, nearly 280 million people speak this tongue globally, with just 77.2 million
claiming it as a first language.
Conversely, 202.6 million have learned it as a secondary language, making it the fourth-most
popular peripheral language overall.
Referred to as Francophones, the world’s population of french-speakers are divided
across the planet with around 40% living in Europe, 35% populating sub-Saharan Africa,
and another 15% being found within the Middle East and North Africa.
#4 Spanish Spanish is the second-most commonly spoken
native tongue in the world with an approximate 460.1 million people using it as a primary
language.
Seeing use throughout Central and South America, this is the official language of 20 countries
like Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Cuba, and of course, Mexico.
Each country has its own varieties within their borders, leading to vast differences
in Spanish from speaker to speaker.
Another 74.2 million people have adopted it as a second language, bringing the total number
of Spanish-speakers to an astounding 534.3 million!
#3 Hindi The most commonly spoken language in the Republic
of India is Hindi, though it doesn’t claim the status as the national language.
With 22 different languages recognized across the country, the Indian constitution didn’t
deem it necessary to designate one as having any sort of superiority over the others.
As a result, many within the country learn the language even if it’s not their original
speech.
More than 615 million Hindi speakers can be found in the world, 341.2 million of which
learn as a primary language.
Meanwhile, 274.2 million study and use it as a secondary tongue, making it the second
most popular alternative language in the world.
Branching off from the Indo-European languages as an Indo-Aryan vernacular, Hindi can be
heard all across its south Asian homeland, but also in countries like Fiji, Trinidad
and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal, Uganda, the United States, the United Kingdom,
and more!
#2 Mandarin Chinese Composed of a diversity of Chinese dialects
heard around northern and southwestern China, Mandarin is a widely spoken language both
inside and outside of its native land.
Seventy percent of all Chinese speakers in the region stretching from Yunnan to Xinjiang
to Heilongjiang speak Mandarin, despite their being seven to ten Chinese dialect groups
in all.
It is by far the top-ranking first language on the planet with 917.8 million native speakers.
But the number of people that learn Mandarin as a second language is still very impressive
at an estimated total of 198.7 million speakers, bringing the grand sum of users to 1.116 billion!
The Sino-Tibetan language, while vastly popular, varies greatly due to all the dialects grouped
under its banner.
It's entirely possible for two people with different local variations on Mandarin to
find one another’s speech wholly unintelligible.
#1 English At the top of the mountain, English reigns
as the most commonly spoken language on Earth with 1.132 billion users in all.
However it is only the third-most common first language in the world with 379 million speakers,
meanwhile 753.3 million people have adopted English as a second language and is the most
popular secondary language globally.
This Germanic-based Indo-European tongue is used most often in countries like Britain,
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and the U.S., while nations like the Philippines,
India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Jamaica continue to use it with increasing frequency.
What languages are popular in your hometown?
Let us know in the comment section below!