Top 30 Languages by Number of Native Speakers

There are approximately 6900 languages currently spoken around the world, the majority of which have only a small number of speakers. About 4 billion of the earth's 6.5 billion people, or over 60% of the earth's population, speak one of the following 30 languages as their native tongue.

Languages are ordered in the table below by numbers of native speakers. Numbers of second-language speakers are given where known. Second language speakers are those whose native language is typically a minority language of the country in which they live and who learn the second language because it is the official national language of the country where they reside.

Top 30 Languages by Number of Native Speakers

	Language	approximate # of speakers		Where is it spoken as an official language?
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.

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