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List of languages by number of native speakers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article ranks human languages by their number of native

speakers.
However, all such rankings should be used with caution.[1] First,
it is difficult to define the difference between a language and a
dialect, or between a language and a macrolanguage; for
example, Chinese is sometimes considered a single language
and sometimes a macrolanguage whose many varieties are all
independent languages.

Current distribution of human language

families

For a list of languages with the smallest numbers of native speakers, see lists of endangered languages.

Contents
1
2
3
4
5

Nationalencyklopedin
Charts and graphs
See also
References
External links

Nationalencyklopedin
The following table contains the top 100 languages by estimated number of native speakers in the 2007 edition
of Nationalencyklopedin. As census methods in different countries vary to a considerable extent, and some
countries do not record language in their censuses, any list of languages by native speakers, or total speakers, is
based on estimates. Updated estimates from 2010 are also provided.[2]
The top eleven languages have additional figures from the 2010 edition of the Nationalencyklopedin. Numbers
above 95 million are rounded off to the nearest 5 million.

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Top languages by population per Nationalencyklopedin

Native
Fraction
speakers
of world
Rank
Language
in millions
population
2007 (2010)
(2007)
1

Mandarin

935 (955)

14.1%

Spanish

390 (405)

5.85%

English

365 (360)

5.52%

Hindi

295[3] (310)[4] 4.46%

Arabic

280 (295)

4.23%

Portuguese

205 (215)

3.08%

Bengali

200 (205)

3.05%

Russian

160 (155)

2.42%

Japanese

125 (125)

1.92%

10

Punjabi

95 (100)

1.44%

11

German

92 (89)

1.39%

12

Javanese

82

1.25%

13

Wu (inc. Shanghainese) 80

1.20%

14

Malay/Indonesian

77

1.16%

15

Telugu

76

1.15%

16

Vietnamese

76

1.14%

17

Korean

76

1.14%

18

French

75

1.12%

19

Marathi

73

1.10%

20

Tamil

70

1.06%

21

Urdu

66

0.99%

22

Turkish

63

0.95%

23

Italian

59

0.90%

24

Yue (Cantonese)

59

0.89%

25

Thai

56

0.85%

26

Gujarati

49

0.74%

27

Jin

48

0.72%

28

Southern Min

47

0.71%

29

Persian

45

0.68%

30

Polish

40

0.61%

31

Pashto

39

0.58%

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Rank

Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_...

Native
speakers
in millions
2007 (2010)

Fraction
of world
population
(2007)

32

Kannada

38

0.58%

33

Xiang (Hunnanese)

38

0.58%

34

Malayalam

38

0.57%

35

Sundanese

38

0.57%

36

Hausa

34

0.52%

37

Odia (Oriya)

33

0.50%

38

Burmese

33

0.50%

39

Hakka

31

0.46%

40

Ukrainian

30

0.46%

41

Bhojpuri

29[5]

0.43%

42

Tagalog

28

0.42%

43

Yoruba

28

0.42%

44

Maithili

27[5]

0.41%

45

Uzbek

26

0.39%

46

Sindhi

26

0.39%

47

Amharic

25

0.37%

48

Fula

24

0.37%

49

Romanian

24

0.37%

50

Oromo

24

0.36%

51

Igbo

24

0.36%

52

Azerbaijani

23

0.34%

53

Awadhi

22[5]

0.33%

54

Gan Chinese

22

0.33%

55

Cebuano (Visayan)

21

0.32%

56

Dutch

21

0.32%

57

Kurdish

21

0.31%

58

Serbo-Croatian

19

0.28%

59

Malagasy

18

0.28%

60

Saraiki

17[6]

0.26%

61

Nepali

17

0.25%

62

Sinhalese

16

0.25%

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Rank

Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_...

Native
speakers
in millions
2007 (2010)

Fraction
of world
population
(2007)

63

Chittagonian

16

0.24%

64

Zhuang

16

0.24%

65

Khmer

16

0.24%

66

Turkmen

16

0.24%

67

Assamese

15

0.23%

68

Madurese

15

0.23%

69

Somali

15

0.22%

70

Marwari

14[5]

0.21%

71

Magahi

14[5]

0.21%

72

Haryanvi

14[5]

0.21%

73

Hungarian

13

0.19%

74

Chhattisgarhi

12[5]

0.19%

75

Greek

12

0.18%

76

Chewa

12

0.17%

77

Deccan

11

0.17%

78

Akan

11

0.17%

79

Kazakh

11

0.17%

80

Northern Min

10.9

0.16%

81

Sylheti

10.7

0.16%

82

Zulu

10.4

0.16%

83

Czech

10.0

0.15%

84

Kinyarwanda

9.8

0.15%

85

Dhundhari

9.6[5]

0.15%

86

Haitian Creole

9.6

0.15%

87

Eastern Min

9.5

0.14%

88

Ilocano

9.1

0.14%

89

Quechua

8.9

0.13%

90

Kirundi

8.8

0.13%

91

Swedish

8.7

0.13%

92

Hmong

8.4

0.13%

93

Shona

8.3

0.13%

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Rank

Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_...

Native
speakers
in millions
2007 (2010)

Fraction
of world
population
(2007)

94

Uyghur

8.2

0.12%

95

Hiligaynon

8.2

0.12%

96

Mossi

7.6

0.11%

97

Xhosa

7.6

0.11%

98

Belarusian

7.6[7]

0.11%

99

Balochi

7.6

0.11%

100

Konkani

7.4

0.11%

5,610

85%

Total

Charts and graphs

List of languages by number of native speakers,

Packed bubbles.

[2]

See also
Global language system
Linguistic demography
Linguistic Diversity Index
List of ISO 639-3 codes
List of languages by total number of speakers
List of languages by number of native speakers in India (uses a different definition of Hindi)
List of sign languages by number of native signers
Lists of languages

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World language

References
1. Paolillo, John C.; Das, Anupam (31 March 2006). "Evaluating language statistics: the Ethnologue and beyond" (PDF).
UNESCO Institute of Statistics. pp. 35. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
2. Mikael Parkvall, "Vrldens 100 strsta sprk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in
Nationalencyklopedin. Asterisks mark the 2010 estimates (http://www.ne.se/spr%C3%A5k/v%C3%A4rldens-100-st
%C3%B6rsta-spr%C3%A5k-2010) for the top dozen languages.
3. Includes approx. 100 million speakers of other Hindi languages listed below.
4. Includes approx. 100 million speakers of other Hindi languages listed below.
5. This is only a fraction of total speakers; others are counted under "Hindi" as they regard their language a Hindi
dialect.
6. Numbers may also be counted in Punjabi above
7. Only half this many use Belarusian as their home language.

External links
The Ethnologue's most recent list of languages by number of speakers (http://www.ethnologue.org
/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size)
Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People (http://encarta.msn.com/media_701500404
/Languages_Spoken_by_More_Than_10_Million_People.html) (Archived (http://www.webcitation.org
/query?id=1257013011437361) 2009-10-31) Encarta list, based on data from Ethnologue, but some
figures (e.g. for Arabic) widely vary from it
Map of World Languages. Download of MP3 audio files in 1600 language combinations.
(http://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/index.htm)
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