There are more than 6000 languages and dialects around the world, and do you know what the top 20 languages are? What are the most spoken languages? How many natives speak this language and in which countries? In this article we will share with you a table showing the 20 most spoken languages in the world.
Remembering that we are going to use an average, and we are not going to name all countries that have natives. Bearing in mind that this ranking is never correct, several surveys achieve different results, over the years this ranking changes and fluctuates but remains almost the same.
Recalling that Chinese includes all dialects in addition to Mandarin, which has a total of 935 million speakers. It is worth remembering that the percentage or worldwide fraction of natives is not entirely in accordance with the number of speakers.
Top 10 of 2017 without details:
- Mandarin - 1,051 million - China, Malaysia and Taiwan.
- Hindi - 565 million - India, northern and central regions.
- English - 545 million - USA, UK, parts of Oceania.
- Spanish - 450 million - Spain and the Americas.
- Arab - 246 million - Middle East, Arabia, North Africa.
- Portuguese - 218 million - Brazil, Portugal, Angola.
- Bengali - 171 million - Bangladesh, northeast India.
- Russian - 145 million - Russia and Central Asia.
- French - 130 million - France, Canada, West and Central Africa.
- Japanese - 127 million - Japan.
Top 20 of 2010 detailed:
Responsive Table: Roll the table sideways with your finger <<
| Position | Language | Speakers native |
% | Countries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chinese | 1.302.000.000 | 19,1% | China, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand |
| 2 | Spanish | 427.000.000 | 5,85% | Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, United States, Venezuela |
| 3 | English | 339.000.000 | 5,52% | Australia, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji Islands, Gambia, Guyana, India, Ireland, Israel, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa , Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Suriname, Switzerland, Tonga, United Kingdom, United States, Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, and several Caribbean islands |
| 4 | Arabic | 267.000.000 | 4,70% | Middle East, Arabia, North Africa |
| 5 | Hindi | 260.000.000 | 4,46% | India, Nepal, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda |
| 6 | Portuguese | 202.000.000 | 3,08% | Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, France, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe |
| 7 | Bengali | 189.000.000 | 3,05% | Bangladesh, India, Singapore |
| 8 | Russian | 171.000.000 | 2,42% | China, Israel, Mongolia, Russia, United States |
| 9 | Japanese | 128.000.000 | 1.92% | Japan, Singapore, Taiwan |
| 10 | Javanese | 84.000.000 | 1,25% | Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore |
| 11 | Korean | 77.000.000 | 1,14% | China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand |
| 12 | German | 77.000.000 | 1,39% | Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland |
| 13 | French | 76.000.000 | 1,18% | Andorra, Algeria, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Canada, Congo, Zaire, Djibouti, France, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Luxembourg, Mauritania, Monaco, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Vanuatu |
| 14 | Telugo | 74.000.000 | 1,15% | India, Singapore |
| 15 | Marati | 72.000.000 | 1,10% | India |
| 16 | Turkish | 71.000.000 | 0,99% | Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, Uzbekistan |
| 17 | Urdu | 68.000.000 | 0,95% | Afghanistan, India, Mauritius, Pakistan, South Africa, Thailand |
| 18 | Vietnamese | 68.000.000 | 0,95% | Vietnam, China |
| 19 | Tamil | 67.000.000 | 0,94% | India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka |
| 20 | Italian | 59.000.000 | 0,90% | Croatia, Eritrea, France, Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland |
Most studied languages
In addition, we will see a small list of the most studied languages in the world so you can compare the importance. If you liked the article don't forget to share and leave your comments.
Responsive Table: Roll the table sideways with your finger <<
| Language | |
| 1 | English |
| 2 | German |
| 3 | French |
| 4 | Spanish |
| 5 | Mandarin |
| 6 | Dutch |
| 7 | Portuguese |
| 8 | Italian |
| 9 | Russian |
| 10 | Japanese |
