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The 50 Most Widely Spoken Languages (1996)

    See also World Language Map

    Rank, Countries2 Population3
    language (in millions)
     1. Chinese, Mandarin Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, S. Africa, Taiwan, Thailand 1120
     2. English Australia, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Ireland, Israel, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, S. Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Tonga, U.K., U.S., Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, many Caribbean states, Zambia. 480
     3. Spanish Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Rep., Ecuador, El Salvador, Eq. Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Togo, Tunisia, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela. 332
     4. Arabic Egypt, Sudan, ALgeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lybia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, UAE, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon 235
     5. Bengali Bangladesh, India, Singapore 189
     6. Hindi India, Nepal, Singapore, S. Africa, Uganda 182
     7. Russian Belarus, China, Estonia, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, U.S., Uzbekistan 180
     8. Portuguese Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, France, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Macau 170
     9. Japanese Japan, Singapore, Taiwan 125
     10. German Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Czech Rep., Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland 98
    11. Chinese, Wu China 77.2
    12. Javanese Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore 75.5
    13. Korean China, Japan, N. Korea, S. Korea, Singapore, Thailand 75
    14. French Algeria, Andorra, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, France, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Laos, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Monaco, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, Vanuatu, Vietnam 72
    15. Turkish Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, Uzbekistan 69
    16. Vietnamese China, Vietnam 67.7
    17. Telugu India, Singapore 66.4
    18. Chinese, Yue(Cantonese) Brunei, China, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Malaysia, Panama, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam 66
    19. Marathi India 64.8
    20. Tamil India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, S. Africa, Sri Lanka 63.1
    21. Italian Croatia, Eritrea, France, Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland 59
    22. Urdu Afghanistan, India, Mauritius, Pakistan, S. Africa, Thailand 58
    23. Chinese, Min Nan Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand 49
    24. Chinese, Jinyu China 45
    25. Gujarati India, Kenya, Pakistan, Singapore, S. Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe 44
    26. Polish Czech Rep., Germany, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovakia 44
    27. Ukrainian Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine 41
    28. Persian Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, Qatar, Tajikistan, U A Emirates 37.3
    29. Chinese, Xiang China 36
    30. Malayalam India, Singapore 34
    31. Chinese, Hakka Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Panama, Singapore, Suriname, Taiwan, Thailand 34
    32. Kannada India 33.7
    33. Oriya India 31
    34. Panjabi, Western India, Pakistan 30
    35. Sunda Indonesia 27
    35. Panjabi, Eastern India, Kenya, Singapore 26
    36. Romanian Hungary, Israel, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine 26
    37. Bhojpuri India, Mauritius, Nepal 25
    38. Azerbaijani, South Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey 24.4
    40. Maithili India, Nepal 24.3
    41. Hausa Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo 24.2
    43. Burmese Bangladesh, Myanmar 22
    44. Serbo-Croatian4 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia 21
    45. Chinese, Gan China 20.6
    46. Awadhi India, Nepal 20.5
    47. Thai Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia 20
    48. Dutch Belgium, France, Netherlands, Suriname 20
    49. Yoruba Benin, Nigeria 20
    50. Sindhi Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Singapore 19.7
    1. Many of the languages listed are technically dialects, not separate languages. They are listed separately because they differ from each other enough to be mutually unintelligible.
    2. The countries listed under Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and Serbo-Croatian do not include those in which less than 1% of the population speaks the language as a first language.
    3. The population figures refer to first language speakers in all countries and are general estimates.
    4. Serbo-Croatian is now known variously as Serbian, Croatian, or Bosnian, depending on the speaker's ethnic or political affiliation.


































































    Source: Ethnologue, 13th Edition, Barbara F. Grimes, Editor. © 1996, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc. Includes corrections made by:


    Copyright © 2000 - 2020 Photius Coutsoukis (All rights reserved).