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Most Spoken Languages In the World Today - Photo: Babbel

What are the most spoken languages in the world?

It's not as easy to answer as it might seem. Giving a precise response is challenging due to the following issues:

What do you mean by "spoken" first off? Do you want to order languages by the number of native speakers or by the total number of people who speak them, whether they are native speakers or not? These two methods result in lists that look very differently. In addition, how do you distinguish between a language and a dialect? How dissimilar must two "dialects" be to be regarded as entirely distinct languages? There is frequently no simple solution, and the response you give can have a big impact on where a language ranks in the "most spoken" rankings.

Having said that, it is possible to create some rough rankings. Here is the most accurate estimate of the most-spoken languages in the world at the time of writing, based on all speakers, not just native speakers.

1.English — 1.5 Billion Speakers

English. Photo: Babbel

Official language in: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Brunei, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somaliland, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, UK, United States, Vanuatu, Zambia

Regional language in: Honduras in the Bay Islands, Micronesia except for Kosrae, Netherlands in Saint Maarten, Saint Eustatius and Saba islands

Widely spoken in: Cyprus, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Israel, Palestine, Switzerland.

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2.Mandarin Chinese — 1.3 Billion Speakers

Mandarin Chinese. Photo: Babbel

Official language in: China, Singapore, Taiwan

Widely spoken in: Malaysia

With 1.3 billion speakers, Mandarin Chinese is by far the most widespread of the 297 living languages used in China. (For comparison, 80 million people speak Wu, which is the second-most-spoken language and is listed at No. 21 on this list.)

Although there is much discussion about whether Mandarin will eventually surpass English as the language of transnational business, experts do not believe this will happen because most people outside of Asia do not have a basic understanding of Mandarin.

Fun fact: Chinese can be written using traditional characters or simplified characters, which were developed as part of a government effort to make the language simpler to learn in the 1950s.

3.Spanish — 661 Million Speakers

Spanish. Photo: Babbel

Official language in: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela

Minority language in: Andorra

Regional language in: Belize

Widely spoken in: Philippines, United States

The Spanish language spread quickly throughout the world as new lands were discovered through conquest. Today, millions of people across numerous nations speak this language, which is most frequently found in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Mexico is home to the majority of Spanish-speaking people on earth. There are 41 million people who speak Spanish as their first language in the United States, where English is the official language. Studies indicate that by 2050, the United States will surpass Mexico as the country with the largest Spanish-speaking population because nearly 12 million Americans are also bilingual.

4.Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu) — 544 Million Speakers

Hindustani. Photo: Babbel

Official language in: Fiji and India (Hindi); Pakistan (Urdu)

Both the Hindi and Urdu languages, which are direct ancestors of Sanskrit, are referred to as Hindustani.

Because Hindi is an official language in India, the second-most populous nation on Earth, so many people speak it. Muslim communities speak Urdu more frequently than other communities, which is an official language in Pakistan, a neighboring nation.

5.Arabic — 422 Million Speakers

Arabic. Photo: Babbel

Official language in: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Regional language in: Israel

National language in: Cyprus (Cypriot Arabic), Niger, South Sudan, Tunisia

Widely spoken in: Eritrea, Indonesia, Philippines

Arabic, a Semitic language from the Arabian Peninsula, started out as a language spoken by nomadic tribes. It is now especially prevalent in the Middle East and neighboring Asian and African nations.

Hebrew is not considered Arabic even though it was influenced by Slavic, Roman, and German dialects and was developed by tribes in the same region. While Arabic is primarily used in Muslim communities, it is also spoken in Israel and by Jewish communities worldwide.

6.Malay — 281 Million Speakers

Malay. Photo: Wikipedia

Official language in: Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia

Indonesian is the most widely used of the Malay dialects, spoken by some 170 million people. Standard Malay, by comparison, is spoken by about 18 million people.

It's believed that Malay began on the Asian island of Borneo around 1000 BC.

7.Russian — 267 Million Speakers

Russian. Photo: Babbel

Official language in: Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Transnistria

Regional language in: Moldova

Minority language in: Poland,

Widely spoken in: Israel, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia

It shouldn't be surprising that Russian is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world because Russia is a large country and was even bigger when it was the Soviet Union. Its speakers can be found not only in contemporary Russia but also in countries like Poland and the Czech Republic that gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In Conclusion

Are any of the top languages surprising?

Were any languages omitted surprising? Which languages are shrinking and which are growing? Will this list change soon? Does language popularity matter when learning one? Comment your thoughts.

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