Top 20 Global Languages by Number of Speakers

Annually, Ethnologue analyzes data from over 7000 languages to determine the most widely spoken ones globally. Explore whether your native language made it to the 2023 ranking and uncover an interesting fact about each of the top 20 languages.

Which language is the most spoken globally?

English, with approximately 1.5 billion speakers worldwide, holds the title of the most spoken language globally. However, it doesn’t have the highest number of native speakers: Mandarin Chinese takes the lead with about 940 million native speakers. English, with 380 million native speakers, ranks third, while Spanish secures second place with around 485 million native speakers.

Discover the 20 most widely spoken languages globally, encompassing both native and non-native speakers.

1. English // 1.5 billion speakers

The most frequently used word in the world's most spoken language is believed to be the. Its brevity, simplicity, and versatility stem from its lack of a single fixed meaning.

2. Mandarin Chinese // 1.1 billion speakers

In its native form, Mandarin Chinese is referred to as putonghua, which translates to “common speech.” The term Mandarin originates from the Portuguese word mandarim, used by Portuguese explorers in the 16th century to describe Chinese officials.

3. Hindi // 609.5 million speakers

On September 14, 1949, India’s Constituent Assembly decided to make Hindi the official language of India. (English is the second official language.) Hindi Diwas, or Hindi Day, is observed annually on September 14 to honor this historic decision.

4. Spanish // 559.1 million speakers

An institution exists solely to protect the Spanish language: the Real Academia Española, or Royal Spanish Academy, founded in 1713. Its motto is “Limpia, fija y da esplendor,” meaning “It cleans, it fixes, and it gives splendor.”

5. French // 309.8 Million speakers

French is rich in homophones, making context crucial. For instance, cent (“one hundred”), sang (“blood”), sens (the first-person singular form of “to feel”), and sans (“without”) are all pronounced identically.

Sans sang, je me sens cent pour cent mort translates to “Without blood, I feel one hundred percent dead.”

6. Standard Arabic // 274 million speakers

Among the six official languages of the United Nations, Arabic stands out as the only one written from right to left. (The others are Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.)

7. Bengali // 272.8 million speakers

In simple English sentences, the object follows the verb, as in I love cats. However, in Bengali, the official language of Bangladesh, the object appears between the subject and the verb—resulting in I cats love.

8. Portuguese // 263.6 million speakers

Only about 5 percent of Portuguese speakers reside in Portugal. While Brazil is home to many, it’s not the sole country where Portuguese is official. Mozambique, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and five other nations and territories also recognize it as an official language.

9. Russian // 255 million speakers

With most missions to the International Space Station taking off from Kazakhstan’s Russian territory, U.S. astronauts bound for the ISS must learn Russian. “People often ask what the toughest part of space travel is, and I always say it’s mastering the language,” astronaut Peggy Whitson remarked in a 2020 interview.

10. Urdu // 231.7 million speakers

Urdu, predominantly used in Pakistan and India, shares such close similarities with Hindi that they are often regarded as two dialects of the same language. However, they are written differently: Hindi uses Devanāgarī, while Urdu employs the Nastaʼlīq script.

11. Indonesian // 199.1 million speakers

Due to the Netherlands’ colonization of Indonesia starting in the early 17th century, Indonesian incorporates numerous Dutch loanwords. For instance, tas means “bag” in both languages, and kantor, meaning “office” in Indonesian, derives from the Dutch word kantoor (which also means “office”).

12. Standard German // 133.2 million speakers

In German, there’s no differentiation between proper and common nouns; every noun is capitalized. The language is also famous for its extraordinarily lengthy words and creative insults.

13. Japanese // 123.4 million speakers

While Japanese includes loanwords from other languages (and some characters adopted from Chinese), it’s classified as a language isolate—indicating it has no known linguistic relatives, and its origins remain a mystery.

14. Nigerian Pidgin // 120.7 million speakers

Nigeria boasts over 500 languages, and Nigerian Pidgin—rooted in English—serves as a bridge for speakers of these diverse languages. Want to start learning? A simple Hello is a great beginning: It’s How far?.

15. Egyptian Spoken Arabic // 102.4 million speakers

While Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Spoken Arabic share vocabulary, the latter includes numerous loanwords from other languages. For instance, Yisantar originates from the English verb center.

16. Marathi // 99.2 million speakers

Marathi has held the status of Maharashtra’s official language since 1966 and shares a close relationship with Hindi. Like Hindi, Marathi is typically written in the Devanāgarī script.

17. Telugu // 96 million speakers

Among roughly 80 languages in the Dravidian family—believed to be about 4500 years old—Telugu is the most widely spoken.

18. Turkish // 90 million speakers

Turkish delight isn’t the sole nod to Turkey in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Turkish word aslan—the lion’s name in the story—literally translates to “lion.”

19. Tamil // 86.6 million speakers

While Telugu is the most widely spoken Dravidian language, Tamil is recognized as the oldest in the family.

20. Yue Chinese // 86.6 million speakers

Cantonese often refers to the entire group of Chinese dialects under Yue Chinese (or any individual dialect within it). However, it can also specifically denote a prominent Yue dialect spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou.