What are the 10 most spoken languages in the world?

Almost half of the world’s population has one of the ten most common languages as their mother tongue. So, what are the top ten most spoken languages? The answer may surprise you.

Figuring out which languages are most spoken in the world is harder than you might imagine. We can say with relative certainty that Mandarin, English, Spanish, and Arabic are involved, and roughly in what order they appear. But there are also some surprises. Would you have guessed that Bengali is in the top ten?

A word of caution: presenting hard facts in the form of X million people having language Y as their first language is virtually impossible at this point. What constitutes a language, or a dialect or sub-dialect, is highly controversial. And even if linguists agree on one category, how closely does the English speak in the Scottish Highlands resemble the English found in downtown Baltimore? At least two speakers of these regions would at least be able to communicate with each other – somehow, anyway.

Also of concern is the fact that what is often referred to simply as Chinese is an entire family of languages simply squeezed into a single category. Hindi is also used as a vague collective term for a variety of dialects and sub-dialects.

The lack of trustworthiness of some data sources, which were compiled at different times by different institutions, is best left unexplained here.

Then again…we all secretly like lists, don’t we?

1. Chinese – 1.3 billion native speakers

Reports on how many Chinese speakers there vary widely. Ethnologue reports about 1.3 billion native speakers, of which about 1 billion speak Mandarin. Wikipedia, on the other hand, estimates that about 900 million Mandarin speakers speak it. Whatever number you go by, there’s no doubt that language has a big impact. If you’re looking for a language spoken by one in six people in the world, Chinese is for you. As a tonal language with pictograms, the language will also keep you on your toes.

Most spoken languages in the world: 2. Spanish – 471 million native speakers

If you only consider people with Spanish as their first language, Spanish is ahead of English at 471 million. As with all the languages on this list, language politics and the identities associated with the language are very controversial: ask Catalan or Quechua speakers if Spanish is their local language and the answers might surprise you. But it’s certainly the primary language in most of South America, Central America, Spain, and much of the US – so if you want to learn a language that will open up an entire continent, Spanish is your best bet. Learn Spanish online at Babbel with our award-winning interactive Spanish online courses.

3. English – 370 million native speakers

There are approximately 370 million people with English as a first language and half a billion people who have English as a second language. This illustrates the success of English as the lingua franca for international trade, tourism, and global relations. English is also relatively easy to learn (especially when compared to Chinese) and the influence of the ubiquitous US pop culture will ensure English continues to play a major role on the world stage. For some, English is still synonymous with a chance at a better life.

4. Hindi – 342 million native speakers

India has 23 official languages, with Hindi and Urdu at the top. Whether these two forms of one language, Hindustani, should be considered as two different languages is still very much a matter of debate. Hindustani is spoken primarily in northern India and Pakistan. Hindi uses Devanagari characters while Urdu uses Persian spelling. If you ever travel around India, a little Hindi will get you far. Plus, it’s the language that gave us words like shampoo, jungle, and bungalow – what’s not to love about that?

Most spoken languages in the world: 5. Arabic – 315 million native speakers

Current counts estimate that around 315 million people have Arabic as their first language. However, this is another example of how numbers don’t tell the whole story: Arabic, like Chinese, is so diverse in its dialects that it could effectively be considered a group of languages, but for the sake of simplicity is referred to as one language. Modern Standard Arabic is mainly found in writing and is closely related to the classical Arabic of the Koran. However, the spoken forms of Arabic, which is spoken in Oman or Morocco, differ greatly.

6. Portuguese – 232 million native speakers

Portuguese is another language that owes its reach to its colonial past. From the 15th century, Portuguese traders and conquerors brought their language to Africa, Asia, and America. The spread of the Portuguese language might initially have been tied to European colonization, but the colonized countries developed their own vibrant cultures that forever changed the language – and the image we have of it. Today there are 232 million people with Portuguese as their first language, for example in Brazil, Goa, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Macau. It is also the language of Machado de Assis, Bossa Nova, Mia Couto, Fernando Pessoa and José Eduardo Agualusa.

7. Bengali – 229 million native speakers

Admit it: you didn’t expect Bengali to be on this list. The Partition of Bengal by the British in 1947 separated (largely Hindu) West Bengal, now part of India, from (largely Muslim) East Bengal, now Bangladesh. Bengali is the language of Calcutta, the Andaman Islands, and the approximately 170 million inhabitants of Bangladesh – according to calculations, the population will even double in the next century!

Most spoken languages in the world: 8. Russian – 154 million native speakers

About 154 million people (according to Ethnologue) have Russian as their first language – making Russian the eighth most common language in the world. Famed for its obscure grammar and lovely Cyrillic alphabet, it is one of the six languages spoken at the UN. It has also produced celebrities such as Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Pushkin.

9. Japanese – 126 million native speakers

Almost all of the 126 million people who speak Japanese as their first language live in Japan, making it easily the most geographically concentrated language on this list. Japanese has two distinct writing systems, hiragana and katakana, and also uses kanji characters of Chinese origin. The largest Japanese-speaking groups outside of Japan can be found in the United States, the Philippines, and Brazil.

10. Panjabi/Lahnda – 118 million native speakers

With estimates of around 118 million native speakers, the bottom of this list goes to… Punjabi! (Sorry, German, you were pushed out a few years ago!) This language is spoken in large parts of India and Pakistan, ie the former Punjab. The region was torn apart by England in 1947 when they withdrew. Millions of people have been forced to leave their homes, livelihoods, and families behind. But they hit back, Bollywood style: Punjabi songs now make up 50% of the chart breakers!