Introduction
Have you ever wondered what the world’s most widely spoken languages are? Despite the fact that there are over 7,000 languages, only 23 of them cover more than half of the world’s population. This isn’t simply a statistic: it’s a crucial truth to consider when developing a global expansion strategy. Knowledge of various languages opens up new perspectives, whether for job or personal reasons.
1. English (1.132 million speakers)
English, like Latin or Greek in the past, is today’s universal language. It is widely used in worldwide business, tourism, technology, and other fields. One out of every three people who connect to the Internet can be understood by a bilingual person who speaks both Spanish and English (Internet World Stats, 2019). In addition, he or she has access to 60% of all content published on the internet (W3Techs, 2019). [FB2].
2. Mandarin (1.117 million speakers)
Mandarin is the world’s second most spoken language when native and non-native speakers are combined. It is, however, the first if only native speakers are included. Mandarin is a group of dialects of the Chinese language, not a language in its own right. The fact that their speakers can comprehend each other is what unites various dialects under one moniker. Despite the fact that 20% of persons who connect to the Internet speak Chinese, just 1% of the content available on the internet is in that language.
3. Hindi (615 million speakers)
Hindi is one of India’s 22 official languages, along with English. India is the world’s second-most populous country. The high incidence of non-native speakers who utilize it as a lingua franca is due to the region’s linguistic variety (more than 1,600 languages coexist).
4. Spanish (534 million speakers)
In terms of native speakers, it is the world’s second most widely spoken language. It’s also the third most popular on the web. Its massive colonial expansion took it to Africa and Asia in addition to America. Because of migration, the United States has the world’s second-largest population of Spanish speakers.
5. French (280 million speakers)
The French were able to spread over the world thanks to colonialism. It is now the official language of 29 nations across the globe. If English is the corporate language, French was once thought to be the cultural language. Its immense importance is evident in the fact that it has the third-largest number of non-native speakers of any language.
6. Arabic (274 million speakers)
The official language of 26 countries is Arabic. It is actually a combination of dialects due to the territorial dispersion. It is also Islam’s liturgical language. It is not only the language that preserves the Arab world’s vast cultural heritage, but it is also a crucial instrument for doing business in this region.
7. Bengali (265 million speakers)
Bangladesh’s official language is Bengali. It may surprise you to learn that a language spoken in such a small territory ranks among the world’s most widely spoken languages. The population density of the location, however, explains the fact. In areas of India and Burma, it is also spoken.
8. Russian (258 million speakers)
When we consider Russian’s geographical reach, its participation among the world’s most frequently spoken languages is less surprising. It is the official language of four countries, but it is also spoken in all former Soviet Union countries. It is the European language with the greatest number of native speakers.
9. Portuguese (234 million speakers)
Another language that grew in popularity throughout the European colonial period was Portuguese. It is now the official language of nine nations spread over Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia. Brazil is the largest proponent in terms of territory and number of speakers. In the southern hemisphere, it is also the most widely spoken language.
10. Indonesian (198 million speakers)
Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, speaks it as its official language. It is remarkable in that most of its speakers do not speak it as their first language. In a country with over 200 languages, it is thus a second language that is required for mutual understanding.
Introduction
All such rankings, however, should be used with caution because a cohesive set of linguistic criteria for identifying languages in a dialect continuum cannot be devised. For example, a language is frequently defined as a collection of mutually intelligible variations, although independent national standard languages, such as Danish and Norwegian, may be considered separate languages despite being mostly mutually intelligible. On the other hand, many widely spoken languages, such as German, Italian, and even English, have variations that are not mutually intelligible. While Modern Standard Arabic is frequently considered a single language, it is not.
The 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World
Identifying the world’s most widely spoken languages is more challenging than you may think. We can predict that Mandarin, English, Spanish, and Arabic will all come (in roughly that order), but there will also be some surprises! Would you have realized Bengali is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world? One caveat: assigning hard data to any of these languages in the form of “X million native speakers” is almost impossible. The definition of a language or dialect is a contentious issue. More troublesome is the fact that “Chinese” refers to an entire family of languages that have been easily grouped into a single category.
Top 10 Languages By Number Of Native Speakers
These are the most widely spoken languages in the world based only on the number of native speakers.
1. Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers
The number of native speakers varies significantly — Ethnologue estimates 1.3 billion native speakers, with around 1.1 billion speaking Mandarin — but there’s no doubt it’s the most commonly spoken language on the planet. This is the language to learn if you want to learn a language spoken by one in every six people on the planet. Because Chinese is a tonal language with hundreds of logograms, it will keep you busy for a long time.
2. Spanish — 471 Million Native Speakers
If we solely consider native speakers, Spanish has a slight lead over English, with 471 million speakers. Spanish is the greatest language to learn if you wish to travel across continents. The politics of language and associated identity are fiercely disputed, as they are for all of the languages on this list: ask Catalan or Quechua speakers if Spanish is their native tongue, and you will get a totally different answer. However, it is the primary language of the vast majority of South and Central America, Spain, and, ahem, big swaths of the United States.
3. English — 370 Million Native Speakers
If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of the 370 million people who speak English natively, or one of the 978 million who do so as a second language. This demonstrates English’s incredible success as the global language of business, travel, and international relations. Because of the relative simplicity with which English may be learned (especially when compared to Chinese) and the ubiquitous soft power of American culture, English will continue to rule the world stage for the foreseeable future. For some, English still connotes possibility and a higher standard of living.
4. Hindi — 342 Million Native Speakers
India has 23 official languages, the most common of which are Hindi and Urdu. It’s still up for debate whether this is one language - Hindustani — or two dialects. Hindi, which is spoken primarily in northern India and parts of Pakistan, is written in devnagri script, whereas Urdu is written in Persian notation. At the time of writing, the debate over its place in Indian education and society has erupted once more: Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attempting to have Hindi replace English as the primary language of official communication and education in southern Indian states, a strategy that has been met with opposition. A little Hindi will get you a long way if you ever travel to the Indian subcontinent.
5. Arabic — 315 Million Native Speakers
According to recent estimates, Arabic has over 315 million native speakers. However, here’s another example of stats not revealing the whole story: Arabic, like Chinese, is so diverse in its dialects that it is practically a collection of languages gathered together for convenience’s sake. Modern Standard Arabic is largely a written language that is closely related to the Quran’s Classical Arabic. The spoken forms of Arabic in countries like Oman and Morocco, on the other hand, are so dissimilar that a couple of philosophy professors from these nations would be able to discuss the finer points of ancient texts while yet unable to order lunch.
6. Portuguese — 232 Million Native Speakers
Another language whose impact is largely due to its colonial history. Portuguese traders and conquerors introduced their language to Africa, Asia, and the Americas beginning in the 15th century. Although Portuguese spread was initially linked to European colonization, the colonized countries created their own dynamic cultures, which forever changed the language. In nations such as Brazil, Goa, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bisseau, S. Tomé and Prncipe, and Macau, Portuguese is spoken by 232 million native speakers. Machado de Assis, Bossa Nova, Mia Couto, Fernando Pessoa, and Agualusa all spoke it.
7. Bengali — 229 Million Native Speakers
You didn’t expect Bengali to be among the most widely spoken languages, did you? The British partitioned Bengal in 1947, dividing (primarily Hindu) West Bengal, which is now part of India, from (mostly Muslim) East Bengal, which is now Bangladesh. Kolkata, the Andaman Islands, delectable sweets, and 130 million Bangladeshis speak it, many of whom are highly vulnerable to climate change. The population is forecast to treble in the next century, while 15% of the land area will be submerged by rising waters.
8. Russian — 154 Million Native Speakers
Russian is the world’s eighth most spoken language, with around 154 million native speakers. It produced literary greats as as Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Chekhov, Gogol, Tolstoy, and Pushkin, and is still one of the six languages spoken at the United Nations.
9. Japanese — 126 Million Native Speakers
The 126 million native Japanese speakers live almost entirely in Japan, making it the most geographically concentrated of all the languages on this list. Japanese has two unique writing systems, hiragana and katakana, and uses Chinese Kanji characters extensively. Outside of Japan, the United States, the Philippines, and Brazil have the highest populations of Japanese speakers.
10. Lahnda (Western Punjabi) — 118 Million Native Speakers
The last slot on the list goes to…, who has an estimated native speaker population of roughly 118 million. Western Punjabi is largely spoken in Lahnda, a Pakistani macrolanguage. (Sorry, German; you were demoted a few years ago from the top world languages.) Eastern Punjabi, which is spoken in India, isn’t even included. When the British left, the Punjab was slashed in half, forcing millions of people to flee their homes, businesses, and families. But, in true Bollywood flair, they’re progressively exacting their vengeance: Punjabi music currently account for half of all chart-topping tracks. If we’ve ever seen a comeback, that’s it.
Top 10 Languages By Total Number Of Speakers
When we look at the top ten most spoken languages based on the total number of people who speak them (whether or not it is their mother tongue), eight of the ten languages from the previous list appear, but with a few notable differences: Due to the fact that more people speak them as a second language than as a native language, English just edges out Chinese for the top place, while Japanese and Punjabi fall out of the top 10, and French and Indonesian enter the top 10 for the first time.
1. English
1.348 billion total speakers
2. Mandarin Chinese
1.120 billion total speakers
3. Hindi
600 million total speakers
4. Spanish
543 million total speakers
5. Standard Arabic
274 million total speakers
6. Bengali
268 million total speakers
7. French
267 million total speakers
8. Russian
258 million total speakers
9. Portuguese
258 million total speakers
10. Urdu
230 million total speakers
FAQ’S
What is the most spoken language in the world 2020?
English will be the most frequently spoken language in the world by 2020, with over 1.2 billion people speaking it. After that, there’s Chinese, which has about 1.120 million speakers, and Hindi, which has over 637 million speakers. Spanish (538 million) and French (538 million) are at the bottom of the podium (278 million).
What is the most spoken language in the world 2019?
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English. 1.132 billion speakers
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Mandarin Chinese. 1.116 billion speakers
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Hindi. 615.4 million speakers
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Spanish. 534.3 million speakers
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French. 279.8 million speakers
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Arabic. 273.9 million speakers
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Bengali. 265.0 million speakers
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Russian. 258.2 million speakers
What is the most spoken language in the world 2021?
| Characteristic | Native speaker in millions |
|---|---|
| English | 1,348 |
| Chinese (Mandarin) | 1,120 |
| Hindi | 600 |
| Spanish | 543 |
What is the hardest language to learn?
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Mandarin. Number of native speakers: 1.2 billion
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Icelandic. Number of native speakers: 330,000
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Japanese. Number of native speakers: 122 million
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Hungarian. Number of native speakers: 13 million
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Korean
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Arabic
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Finnish
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Polish
Conclusion
When native and non-native speakers are combined, English is the world’s most widely spoken language. If only native speakers are counted, Mandarin Chinese is the most common. Bengali has been chosen the sweetest language in the world, according to a UNESCO poll, with Spanish and Dutch coming in second and third.