Spoken languages. It always amazes me how different people speak different languages and understand each other. If two people are speaking the Chinese language, then an English-speaking person is surprised that both of them are understanding each other’s speech and understanding each other.
Similarly, if some people are talking in an African language, a person who knows German will be surprised who they are talking to and understand each other.
There are more than seven thousand languages (7000+) in the world but more than half of the population of the world is speaking only 23 languages. Some languages have very small communities whereas some languages are spread over the world. For example, Ongota is a language in Ethiopia which have only 10 speakers. But English is a language with millions of speakers all over the world. Spoken languages
In this article, we will discuss the 10 most popular languages in the world.
| Language | Speakers |
| Urdu | 231 million |
| Portuguese | 234 million |
| Russian | 258 million |
| Bengali | 265 million |
| Arabic | 274 million |
| French | 280 million |
| Spanish | 534 million |
| Hindi | 615 million |
| Mandarin | 1117 million |
| English | 1132 million |
10. Urdu
Urdu is a member of the Indo-Aryan group within the Indo-European family of languages. It is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan with high influence in India. Urdu is the first language of more than 70 million people whereas the second language of more than 100 million people. Urdu has a handsome amount of speakers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States, and some European countries as well. The Spoken part of Urdu is highly intelligible with the Hindi language and both speakers can understand each other without much issue.
- Overall there are more than 231 million Urdu speakers around the globe.
9. Portuguese
Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world which expanded in the European colonial period. It is the official language of nine countries. Different countries in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia are speaking Portuguese. Brazil is the largest country with the most numbers of Portuguese speakers.
- 234 million speakers worldwide
8. Russian
The Russian language belongs to the eastern branch of the Slavic family of languages. It is the primary language of the majority of people in Russia and it is also the official language of the country. It is also used as a second language in other former republics of the Soviet Union.
- 258 million speakers
7. Bengali
Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh. It is also a popular language in some parts of India and Burma. Bangladesh is a small country but because of its population density, it has a huge number of Bengali speakers
- 265 million speakers
6. Arabic
Arabic is a 2500+ years old language. It is the official language of 26 countries. It is a very popular language in the Middle East and North Africa. Arabic is also the liturgical language of Islam.
- 274 million speakers
5. French
Through colonial expansion, French spread throughout the world, and today, it is the official language of 29 countries around different continents. French is considered a language of culture. It is one of the most popular languages in Europe.
- 280 million speakers
4. Spanish
Spanish language ranks as the second most spoken language globally by the number of native speakers and holds third position in terms of internet usage. Its significant colonial spread extended beyond the Americas to reach Africa and Asia. Moreover, due to migratory movements, the United States boasts the second-largest population of Spanish speakers worldwide.
- 534 million speakers
3. Hindi
Along with English, Hindi is one of the 22 official languages of India. With the highest population in the world, India has highest number of Hindi speakers. In speaking, it is similar to Urdu and both speakers can understand both languages.
- 615 million speakers
2. Mandarin
If we take only native speakers then Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world. With native and non-native speakers, Mandarin is the second most spoken language in the world.
Mandarin refers to a group of dialects within the Chinese language, connected by the mutual intelligibility among its speakers rather than being a distinct language on its own. Remarkably, Chinese speakers constitute 20% of the global internet user base, yet the content available online in Chinese is slightly more than 1% of the total web content.
- 1117 million speakers
1. English
English is viewed as the contemporary lingua franca, serving as the go-to language in sectors like international business, tourism, and technology, among others. A person fluent in both Spanish and English has the ability to communicate with one out of three Internet users (Internet World Stats, 2019). Moreover, this bilingual capability opens up access to 60% of the content available on the web.
- 1132 million speakers
