The 10 Most Spoken Languages in the World for 2021

 

In the globalized world, knowing a language other than your own is essential. It’s because it allows you to access different cultures and understand the customs and habits of other people. In Europe, English is undoubtedly the most widespread language. But is it like that in the rest of the world?

Let’s find out the 10 most spoken languages in the world!

NOTE: The following ranking is based on the latest edition of Ethnologue available online, paper and electronic publication of SIL International, which analyzes thousands of languages ​​in the world providing the number of speakers for each of them, the regions of diffusion, the dialects, the linguistic affiliations, and much more. It should be noted that these data add together estimates from different sources, sometimes unofficial (not always national censuses), therefore, they are of relative reliability.

Tongue	Number of Speakers	Native speaker number
Malay-Indian	199 million	195 million
Portuguese	234 million	220 million
Russian	258 million	154 million
Bengali	265 million	193 million
Modern Standard Arabic	274 million	240 million
French	280 million	110 million
Spanish	534 million	442 million
Hindi	615 million	324 million
Chinese Mandarin	1.12 billion	909 million
English	1.13 billion	460 million

10. Malay-Indonesian

Number of speakers: about 199 million
Language family: Austronesian
% speakers in the world population: 2.58%
Number of native speakers: approximately 195 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 3

9. Portuguese

Number of speakers: about 234 million
Language family: Indo-European
% speakers in the world population: 3%
Number of native speakers: about 220 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 11

8. Russian

Number of speakers: about 258 million
Language family: Indo-European
% speakers in the world population: 3.35%
Number of native speakers: about 154 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 13

7. Bengali

Number of speakers: about 265 million
Language family: Indo-European
% speakers in the world population: 3.44%
Number of native speakers: approximately 193 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 4

6. Modern Standard Arabic

Number of speakers: about 274 million
Language family: Afro-Asian
% speakers in the world population: 3.52%
Number of native speakers: about 240 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 22

5. French

Number of speakers: about 280 million
Language family: Indo-European
% speakers in the world population: 3.63%
Number of native speakers: about 110 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 35

4. Spanish

Number of speakers: about 534 million
Language family: Indo-European
% speakers in the world population: 6.94%
Number of native speakers: about 442 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 23

3. Hindi

Number of speakers: about 615 million
Language family: Indo-European
% speakers in the world population: 8%
Number of native speakers: about 324 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 22

2. Mandarin Chinese

Number of speakers: about 1.12 billion
Language family: Sino-Tibetan
% speakers in the world population: 14.55%
Number of native speakers: about 909 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 8

1. English

Number of speakers: about 1.13 billion
Language family: Indo-European
% speakers in the world population: 14.68%
Number of native speakers: about 460 million
Number of countries where it’s spoken: 24