Tuesday, November 29, 2011

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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