Language is the only thing that introduces us to the world and facilitates our existence. In this vast world of countless inhabitants, approximately 6500 languages are spoken. Amongst these it’s hard to distinguish which language holds greater importance. But we can ascertain based on the number of speakers, which of these languages are the most spoken across the globe. Read On.
1) Mandarin Chinese
It’s surprising to most people that Mandarin Chinese beat English to become the most spoken languages in the world with approximately 1 billion speakers, but it's majorly because it is spoken in the world’s most populated country- China. However, there is no denying that it almost doubles the amount of English speakers in the world. Mandarin is also considered to be one of the world’s toughest languages to learn.
2) English
English occupies the 2nd position with approximately 508 million speakers. English is one of the most popular languages spoken in the world. With so many speakers, it commands the official language status in developed nations like US, UK along with New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Canada and more. English is spoken as the unofficial second language to many non-English speaking countries as well.
3) Hindi
With approximately 497 million speakers, Hindi has become the 3rd most spoken language in the world. The position also is credited to the fact that it has a very large population. In fact, with the pace India’s population is growing, it might beat the English and grab the 2nd place in this list.
4) Spanish
Spanish has 392 million speakers approximately and is one of the most spoken languages in South America. In fact, it is also the most popular language taught in the United States. In some parts of the Spanish speaking world, it is also called Castellano. It is very similar to Portuguese to an extent that Portuguese and Spanish people are able to understand each other mostly.
5) Russian
Given the size of the Russia, it is obvious that the country makes it to the list. It occupies the 5th position with approximately 277 speakers. The language is also popular in the regions of Kazakhstan, Belarus and certain parts of US. It is also unofficially spoken in Ukraine, Moltova, Estonia, and Latvia.
6) Arabic
Arabic language is one of the oldest languages of the world and occupies the 6thposition in this list with 246 million speakers across the globe. This historical language is spoken throughout Saudi Arabia, Middle East, Iran, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon. Being the language of Koran, (the religious book of the Muslims), it is very popular across all the Muslim nations. Arabic has its influence on many other languages of the world like Urdu, Persian, Bosnian and Turkish.
7) Bengali
The language is a native of Bangladesh and is also the second most popular language spoken in India. In total, it commands the 7th most spoken language position with approximately 211 million speakers using Bengali to converse. It is widely spoken in West Bengal, Tripura and Assam states of India. The rapidly increasing population of Bangladesh also makes it quite a possibility that Bengali language will move further up the notch in the list of most spoken languages in the world.
8) Portuguese
Portuguese language has a collective of approximately 191 million speakers across the world giving it the 8th position in the list. It is majorly spoken in Brazil and Portugal while other countries like Macau, Angola, East Timor and Mozambique also have Portuguese as either official or co-official language.
9) Malay
Indonesian With approximately 159 million speakers, the Malay-Indonesian language is the 9th most spoken language in the world. However, the debate remains that there are many dialects in existence but since they all come from the same root language; this language makes it to this list.
10) French
Known as the most romantic language, French makes to the 10th most spoken language in the world with approximately 129 million speakers. French is also very commonly spoken in Canada, Belgium, Cameroon, Haiti, and Rwanda.
Now the above figures are based as per the total number of speakers in the world. If we based our criteria by the number of Native speakers only, the position and statistics of most spoken languages in the world would be as follows:
1. Mandarin Chinese (still Numero-Uno) with approx 1197 million speakers
2. Spanish with approx 406 million speakers
3. English with approx 335 million speakers
4. Hindi with approx 260 million speakers
5. Arabic with approx 223 million speakers
6. Portuguese with approx 202 million speakers
7. Bengali with approx 193 million speakers
8. Russian with approx 162 million speakers
9. Japanese with approx 122 million speakers
10. Javanese with approx 84.3 million speakers
While no one looks beyond number ten, it will be interesting to know that Punjabi is the eleventh most spoken language in the world, with approximately 120 million speakers worldwide (However, its position fluctuates). This Indo-Aryan language has a majority of speakers living in Pakistan and the Punjab region of India. This language is also widely spoken in Haryana, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh states of India.
The positions of the language status keep changing as per the changing criteria. Therefore, these figures will be approximate as updation keeps happening. While most of us may believe that English remains the most important language in the world, it is interesting to know that more than 2/3rd of the world still doesn’t speak English.
