There are thousands of languages in the world. As far as languages that are still alive, there are thought to be over 7,000. Out of these languages, and the different dialects, there are considered to be 23 main languages.
However, when you’re learning a language to advance your career, or just to be able to speak to a wider range of people, you want to know which languages are used the most. This list provides you with the 10 most spoken languages across the globe and ones worth learning if you want to communicate with people.
10 Most Spoken Languages
1. English
Likely to no one’s surprise, English is the most widely spoken language around the globe. There are an estimated 1.5 billion people who speak English as a native or second language. This is due to the powerful impact the United States and Europe have had over the rest of the world.
If you don’t know English as your native language, this is probably the best one to learn. It is spoken in every country and is an effective language to know for all kinds of business. Even if you go to another country, you are likely to find English as a common language amongst a majority of the highly educated.
Not only is it widely spoken because of the influence English-speaking countries have had on the rest of the world, but because it is also considered a fairly easy language to learn especially compared to other popular languages like Chinese.
Interestingly, though it is the most spoken language around the world, it is only the native language for about 373 million people, which marks it as the third most spoken native language.
2. Chinese (Mandarin)
The next most popular and most spoken language around the world is Chinese, specifically Mandarin Chinese. There are an estimated 900 million people who speak Mandarin Chinese, with 1.3 billion native Chinese speakers in total.
However, there are thought to be about 1.2 billion people who speak Mandarin Chinese in total as a native language and a learned language. This means that a majority of the speakers of Mandarin Chinese are native, but the language is quickly growing more popular amongst language learners. It’s also a popular one for business.
This is because China is a huge area for development and economic growth, so being able to speak their language is important for effective communication.
There is a little confusion with Mandarin Chinese because it isn’t a language on its own. Mandarin is considered a group of dialects that have branched out from Chinese.
However, these are all clumped together because even though the dialects have grown separately, those under the Mandarin category can still understand each other pretty well.
3. Hindi
Hindi has 344 million native speakers. This is somewhat impressive considering there are 23 official languages in India alone. There’s also a lot of debate on how many people speak Hindi, as Hindi and Urdu are often considered only languages with various dialects or two completely different languages.
There are about the same amount of native Hindi speakers as non-native speakers. There are an estimated total of 698 million speakers of the language. A lot of those that learn the language tend to be from China.
India is quickly growing into a popular country for business, and Chinese business people are working to learn the language to communicate effectively. While they can oftentimes use English as it is a language they both often know, some people want to go the extra mile and learn the language.
This is part of why the total number of people that speak the language is lower than Chinese and English, because while India is a common place to do business now, there are common languages spoken between them, and learning Hindi isn’t as important.
What you might find surprising is that a lot of the common words we use come from the Hindi language, such as jungle, shampoo, and bungalow.
4. Spanish
Spanish is another one that makes sense to be near the top of this list. Not only is it the native language in Spain, but also in 19 countries in the southern parts of the Americas. Additionally, there is a country in Africa that has Spanish as the official language.
There are about 512 million Spanish speakers in total around the world. It is the second most spoken language in the world by natives. This puts it above English as far as native speakers. Out of the 512 million total Spanish speakers, there are 485 million that are native.
This is a great language to learn, especially if you are located in the United States. It gives you a language that many people near you likely speak, so you can talk to your neighbors. Research shows that there are more Spanish speakers in the United States than in the country of Spain itself.
According to research, someone that speaks both Spanish and English can talk to one in three people they can reach via the internet, and about 60 percent of all the material published online can be understood in Spanish or English, so these two languages together are ideal to learn.
It is the third most spoken language on the internet, and it is considered one of the great Romance languages.
5. French
Next on the list is French. Though it is only currently in fifth place, with 280 million speakers, it is expected to grow over the next few decades and reach high up on the list. 29 countries on top of French colonies use French as their official language or one of their official languages.
Where English and Chinese are considered the languages for business, French is considered the language for culture and art. Most of the people that speak French are non-native speakers, as it doesn’t even reach the top 10 of native speakers.
Some areas you may expect to see French commonly spoken include Canada, a good chunk of Africa, Italy, Spain, and, of course, France.
6. Arabic
Arabic is another common language. You may find it interesting to note that it is specifically Modern Standard Arabic that is the most widely spoken language, and not just Arabic as a whole.
It is also worth mentioning that technically, there are no native speakers of Modern Standard Arabic. It is purely an academic language. You may see businessmen and government officials speaking the language to one another, and it is used in movies, TV, and newspapers, but people don’t speak it to one another.
Most of the time, the language is spoken with dialects, such as Levantine Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Mesopotamian Arabic, or whatever dialect is common to those areas.
For the most part, language speakers suggest learning the dialect of the area you want to visit, and maybe the surrounding areas. Once you get the hang of these dialects, you can add on the Modern Standard Arabic if you want.
However, it’s not a great one to start with, as you will not see many people speaking it.
7. Bengali
You might not have immediately thought of Bengali when you were thinking of the top languages in the world. Most of the speakers are native, with 234 million out of 272 million speakers having Bengali as their first language.
The reason it may be surprising is that Bengali is a relatively small region of the world, as it is spoken primarily in Bangladesh. However, the population density there is high, so though the country is small, it is full of people. Bengali is number six on the list of most native speakers.
Bengali is also spoken in parts of Burma and India. The language hasn’t moved much, with a vast majority of the speakers being in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Those that have learned the language usually do it due to partnering with someone that speaks the language.
However, the language is expected to continue increasing simply due to population growth. In Bangladesh, the language is expected to double along with the population within the next 100 years.
8. Russian
Russian is number eight on the list, with 258 million speakers. It makes sense, as the country of Russia is incredibly large. Additionally, nations near Russia also speak Russian from when they used to be part of the Soviet Union. For example, Poland and the Czech Republic also commonly speak Russian.
Around 154 million speakers are native. Many people are attracted to learning the language as people tend to find the grammar and the alphabet to be pretty and interesting. It is one of the six languages spoken by the United Nations.
By comparing it to other languages spoken throughout history, it seems to have a Cyrillic alphabet and a mixture of several Slavic languages and Greek mixed to create what we now recognize as Russian.
Some of the love for the language also comes from famous writers, such as Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Dostoyevsky. While there are translations of their famous books all across the world, many people still prefer to read the original version of the books and want to learn the language to make sure that they get all the intricate wording and symbolism.
9. Portuguese
Portuguese is another common language, placing ninth on the list of most spoken languages in the world. It is primarily spoken in Brazil and Portugal, but it has also been seen in many African countries. There are about 234 million speakers in all, but only around 2 million speakers are native.
There are also speakers in Asia, and it is estimated that half a million people in the United States speak it, which places it at number 12 for most spoken languages in that country.
It is due to the size of Brazil that Portuguese is so largely spoken. Thanks to the population in that one country, Portuguese is considered the widely spoken language in all of the Southern Hemisphere.
It is also considered a Romance language, alongside Spanish and Italian.
10. Indonesian
Indonesian is considered the most used of the Malay dialects. There are about 199 million speakers, with only 44 million being native. It is the official language of Indonesia.
Interestingly, though it is the official language of the country, most people there don’t know it growing up. It isn’t many people’s primary language, and instead, most of the speakers learn it as a second language as a form of common communication.
Indonesia has over 200 languages, many of which people learn growing up. So having Indonesian as a main common language allows most people to still communicate with one another within the country. In more rural areas, it isn’t spoken or used very much at all.
