World, Languages, Most, Spoken


Question by Devin S:

What are the 30 most spoken languages in the world?

I tried looking around but the most recent data collected is from 2005 or so, and I know how numbers like to fluctuate. Does anyone have the most recent info? If not the 30 most spoken languages, I will also settle for the 20 or 10 most spoken languages in the world.




Best answer:

Answer by cmk796
1 Mandarin Sino-Tibetan Chinese Characters 1120 China, Malaysia, Taiwan
2 English Indo-European Latin 510 USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand
3 Hindi Indo-European Devanagari 490 North and Central India
4 Spanish Indo-European Latin 425 Mexico, Central and South America, Spain
5 Arabic Afro-Asiatic Arabic 255 Middle East, Arabia, North Africa
6 Russian Indo-European Cyrillic 254 Russia, Central Asia
7 Portuguese Indo-European Latin 218 Brazil, Portugal, Southern Africa
8 Bengali Indo-European Bengali 215 Bangladesh, Eastern India
9 Malay, Indonesian Malayo-Polynesian Latin 175 Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore
10 French Indo-European Latin 130 France, Canada, West Africa, Central Africa
11 Japanese Altaic Chinese Characters and 2 Japanese Alphabets 127 Japan
12 German Indo-European Latin 123 Germany, Austria, Central Europe
13 Farsi (Persian) Indo-European Nastaliq 110 Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia
14 Urdu Indo-European Nastaliq 104 Pakistan, India
15 Punjabi Indo-European Gurumukhi 103 Pakistan, India
16 Vietnamese Austroasiatic Based on Latin 86 Vietnam, China
17 Tamil Dravidian Tamil 78 Southern India, Sri Lanka, Malyasia
18 Wu Sino-Tibetan Chinese Characters 77 China
19 Javanese Malayo-Polynesian Javanese 76 Indonesia
20 Turkish Altaic Latin 75 Turkey, Central Asia
21 Telugu Dravidian Telugu 74 Southern India
22 Korean Altaic Hangul 72 Korean Peninsula
23 Marathi Indo-European Devanagari 71 Western India
24 Italian Indo-European Latin 61 Italy, Central Europe
25 Thai Sino-Tibetan Thai 60 Thailand, Laos
26 Cantonese Sino-Tibetan Chinese Characters 55 Southern China
27 Gujarati Indo-European Gujarati 47 Western India, Kenya
28 Polish Indo-European Latin 46 Poland, Central Europe
29 Kannada Dravidian Kannada 44 Southern India
30 Burmese Sino-Tibetan Burmese 42 Myanmar

According to once source
-------------
This is according to 2nd source

1. Mandarin Chinese NATIVE: 873 million
2nd: 178 million
TOTAL: 1.051 billion OFFICIAL: People's Republic of China, Republic of China, Singapore
2. Hindi NATIVE: 370 million
2nd:120 million
TOTAL: 490 million OFFICIAL: India, Fiji
3. Spanish NATIVE: 350 million
2nd: 70 million
TOTAL: 420 million OFFICIAL: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, United States (New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela
4. English NATIVE: 340 million
TOTAL: 510 million OFFICIAL: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong (People's Republic of China), India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Maritius, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevs, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somolia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
5. Arabic NATIVE: 206 million
2nd: 24 million
TOTAL: 230 million

[World Almanac est. total 255 million] OFFICIAL: Modern Standard Arabic: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen. | Hasaniya Arabic: Mauritania, Senegal
NATIONAL: Mali


Note: These figures combine all the varieties of Arabic. Some data sources, e.g. CIA World Fact Book, World Almanac, Ethnologue, treat these varieties as separate languages.
6. Portuguese NATIVE: 203 million
2nd: 10 million
TOTAL: 213 million OFFICIAL: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau (People's Republic of China), Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe.
7. Bengali NATIVE: 196 million
TOTAL: 215 million OFFICIAL: Bangladesh, India (Tripura, West Bengal)
8. Russian NATIVE: 145 million
2nd: 110 million
TOTAL: 255 million OFFICIAL: Abkhazia (part of Georgia), Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyyrgyzstan, Russia, Transnistria (part of Moldova).
9. Japanese NATIVE: 126 million
2nd: 1 million
TOTAL: 127 million OFFICIAL: Japan, Palau
10. German NATIVE: 101 million
2nd: 128 million
TOTAL: 229 million OFFICIAL: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy (South Tyrol), Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Siwtzerland



Language # of speakers Where is it spoken as an official language?
11. Panjabi Western: 60 million
Eastern: 28 million
TOTAL: 88 million OFFICIAL: India (Punjab)
NATIONAL: Pakistan
12. Javanese 76 million OFFICIAL: Indonesia (esp. Java)
13. Korean 71 million OFFICIAL: North Korea, South Korea
14. Vietnamese NATIVE: 70 million
2nd: 16 million
TOTAL: 86 million OFFICIAL: Vietnam
15. Telugu NATIVE: 70 million
2nd: 5 million
TOTAL: 75 million OFFICIAL: India (Andhra Pradesh)
16. Marathi NATIVE: 68 million
2nd: 3 million
TOTAL: 71 million OFFICIAL: India (Daman and Diu, Goa, Maharashtra)
17. Tamil NATIVE: 68 million
2nd: 9 million
TOTAL: 77 million OFFICIAL: India (Tamil Nadu), Singapore, Sri Lanka
18. French NATIVE: 67 million
2nd: 63 million
TOTAL: 130 million OFFICIAL or NATIONAL: Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, French Polynesia, Gabon, Guernsey, Guinea, Haiti, India (Karikal, Pondicherry), Italy, Jersey, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Monaco, New Caledonia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, United States (Louisiana), Vanuatu.
19. Urdu NATIVE: 61 million
2nd: 43 million
TOTAL: 104 million OFFICIAL: India (Jammu and Kashmir), Pakistan.
20. Italian 61 million OFFICIAL: Croatia (Istria Country), Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland.





Language # of speakers Where is it spoken as an official language?
21. Turkish NATIVE: 60 million
2nd: 15 million
TOTAL: 75 million OFFICIAL: Bulgaria (Kurdzhali Province and areas of South and East Bulgaria), Cyprus, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Turkey
22. Persian 54 million OFFICIAL: Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan.
23. Gujarati 46 million OFFICIAL: India (Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli).
24. Polish 46 million OFFICIAL: Poland
25. Ukrainian 39 million OFFICIAL: Ukraine, Transnistria (part of Moldova).
26. Malayalam 37 million OFFICIAL: India (Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahe).
27. Kannada NATIVE: 35 million
2nd: 9 million
TOTAL: 44 million OFFICIAL: India (Karnataka).
28. Oriya 32 million OFFICIAL: India (Orissa).
29. Burmese NATIVE: 32 million
2nd: 10 million
TOTAL: 42 million OFFICIAL: Myanmar.
30. Thai NATIVE: 20 million
2nd: 40 million
TOTAL: 60 million OFFICIAL: Thailand


Honestly I believe the 2nd source over the 1st.But diff. sites give diff. numbers.

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