The most spoken languages ​​in the world

What language is most commonly spoken around the world? The answer depends on the criteria by which this is measured. Certain statistics are more difficult to understand than others, but all should be treated with caution. Let’s take an example: Estimates of the number of people who know a certain language as a second language are often given with political or financial goals. In fact, certain people are interested in making a language seem more or less important. This can then make their estimates erroneous.

Even organizations that normally present their information as neutrally as possible depend on certain censuses and inventories for their publications. For example, the reports of the EU Eurobarometer are based on surveys of people about the foreign language in which they can communicate fluently. However, self-assessments are notoriously tricky, and people hold themselves to a variety of standards.

With that in mind, here are some statistics:

The languages ​​are spoken by most native speakers worldwide:

1. Chinese, Mandarin (908.7 million)
2. Spanish (442.3 million)
3. English (378.2 million)
4. Hindi-Urdu (329.1 million)
5. Arabic (290 million)
6. Bengali language (242.6 million)
7. Portuguese (222.7 million)
8. Russian (153.9 million)
9. Japanese (128.2 million)
10. Western Punjabi (119 million)

This information takes into account the number of native speakers and is published by the world-renowned encyclopedia Ethnologue of the world’s living languages. At the time of the last update, there were 7,097 living languages.

When looking at these numbers, you need to be aware that exact figures are difficult to come by. For example, when the American government conducts a survey on languages, they give an approximate accuracy of 90%. In a country of (approximately) 328 million people, that translates to an error rate of (approximately) 32 million. If you conduct the survey in India, which speaks three of the languages ​​listed above and is home to over a billion people, the challenges are many times greater.

The languages ​​are spoken by most people worldwide:

Anthropologists propose the following list, which includes native speakers and non-native speakers together:

1. English (1.121 billion)
2. Mandarin Chinese (1.107 billion)
3. Hindi/Urdu (697.4 million)
4. Spanish (512.9 million)
5. Arabic (422 million)
6. French (284.9 million)
7. Malaysian (281 million)
8. Russian (264.3 million)
9. Bengali language (261.8 million)
10. Portuguese (236.5 million)

Estimating the number of people with a second language is very difficult. Even the best estimates involve a significant amount of guesswork. For example, the British Council estimates that around 1.5 billion people speak English. You will hear this number more often, but it is significantly higher than that of the ethnologists.

Languages ​​recognized as official languages ​​in most countries/ex-colonies worldwide:

Compared to the list of native speakers, this is relatively easy to create. Of the five languages ​​listed, Arabic poses the greatest challenge because the spoken languages ​​referred to as “Arabic” cannot all be understood themselves. Despite this, Standard Spanish is used as a second spoken language in the countries. Learn Spanish online to be fluent in conversation smoothly.

1. English (59)
2. French (29)
3. Arabic (26)
4. Spanish (21)
5. Portuguese (9)

This list shows the influence of European colonial history on the world language map. Languages ​​with large numbers of native speakers, such as Japanese or Mandarin Chinese, have not progressed beyond Asia. On the other hand, the Western European languages ​​were carried to all corners of the world by the colonial powers.

A challenge in compiling this list is the fact that certain countries such as the USA (despite various attempts to introduce one) do not have an official national language. In this case, the de facto languages ​​of the country count, which in turn raises many questions. In other countries, even the question of what a de facto language is can become a challenge.

Internet languages

The Internet offers an interesting opportunity to observe the development of international languages ​​through their use on the Internet.

1. English (25.4%)
2. Chinese (19.3%)
3. Spanish (8.1%)
4. Arabic (5.3%)
5. Portuguese (4.1%)
6. Indonesian/Malaysian (4.1%)
7. French (3.2%)
8. Japanese (2.9%)
9. Russian (2.6%)
10. German (2.2%)

The order is placed according to the penetration of the Internet in different countries and seems to give a generously added value to the numerous non-English speakers who use it to surf the net.

But that doesn’t accurately reflect the importance of English on the Internet. Google shows the percentage of links to and from websites in different languages. It is not surprising to see that many more links from other languages ​​lead to English websites than vice versa.

A more informal way to track languages ​​on the web and measure their share is to look at the number of articles on Wikipedia tracked in different languages:

1. English (46,238,749)
2. Vietnamese (13,967,480)
3. French (9,821,714)
4. Cebuano (8,965,038)
5. Swedish (7,699,545)
6. Spanish (6,500,443)
7. German (6,260,023)
8. Italian (5,973,647)
9. Russian (5,720,760)
10. Chinese (5,564,787)

languages ​​in publishing

UNESCO records the number of books published in different countries each year. You can find the most recent numbers below:

1. China (440,000 books)
2. United States (304,912 books)
3. UK (184,000 books)
4. Japan (139,078 books)
5. Russia (101,981 books)
6. Germany (93,600 books)
7. India (90,000 books)
8. France (77,986 books)
9. Iran (72,871 books)
10. Italy (61,966 books)

Counting the books published in the US, the UK, and nearly 25% of books published in English in India, English remains the dominant language in international publishing.

So, what language is most commonly spoken around the world?

The tables provide an interesting overview of the world’s most spoken and written languages. Three of the world’s ten most spoken mother tongues are rarely used in publishing, the Internet or international communication. In these areas, English is the dominant language. The three languages ​​are all Indian and well-trained speakers would need to be able to become fluent in English as a second language.

English remains the world’s most important international language in many ways other than the number of native speakers. But this measurement can prove difficult as such. A report published by the British Council estimates that around 2 billion people will learn English at some point in the next decade. But even then, two-thirds of the world’s population still does not speak English.