Most Spoken Languages In The World: Map Showing Where They Come From

The map above shows where the World’s Top 40 languages (spoken by 45+ million speakers) come from. It includes both native speakers and those speaking it as a second or additional language.

Here is a list of the most spoken languages in the world including the country (countries) of origin:

Language	Native / First-language	Second-language or Additional Language	Total speakers	Homeland
English	380 million	1.077 billion	1.456 billion	England
Mandarin Chinese	939 million	199 million	1.138 billion	China
Hindi	345 million	266 million	610 million	India
Spanish	485 million	74 million	559 million	Spain
French	81 million	229 million	310 million	France
Modern Standard Arabic (excl. dialects)	0	274 million	274 million	Saudi Arabia
Bengali	234 million	39 million	273 million	Bangladesh
Portuguese	236 million	27 million	264 million	Portgual
Russian	147 million	108 million	255 million	Russia
Urdu	71 million	161 million	232 million	Pakistan
Indonesian	44 million	155 million	199 million	Indonesia
Standard German	75 million	58 million	133 million	Germany
Japanese	123 million	0.2 million	123 million	Japan
Nigerian Pidgin	5 million	116 million	121 million	Nigeria
Egyptian Arabic	77 million	25 million	102 million	Egypt
Marathi	83 million	16 million	99 million	India
Telugu	83 million	13 million	96 million	India
Turkish	84 million	6 million	90 million	Turkey
Yue Chinese (incl. Cantonese)	86 million	1 million	87 million	China
Tamil	79 million	8 million	87 million	India
Vietnamese	85 million	1 million	86 million	Vietnam
Wu Chinese (incl. Shanghainese)	83 million	0.1 million	83 million	China
Tagalog	29 million	54 million	83 million	Philippines
Korean	82 million	—	82 million	Korea (North and South)
Iranian Persian	57 million	21 million	79 million	Iran
Hausa	52 million	27 million	79 million	Nigeria
Swahili	16 million	55 million	72 million	Tanzania, Kenya
Javanese	—	—	68 million	Indonesia
Italian	65 million	3 million	68 million	Italy
Western Punjabi	—	—	67 million	Pakistan, India
Gujarati	57 million	5 million	62 million	India
Thai	21 million	40 million	61 million	Thailand
Kannada	44 million	15 million	59 million	India
Amharic	32 million	25 million	58 million	Ethiopia
Eastern Punjabi	48 million	4 million	52 million	India
Bhojpuri	52 million	0.2 million	52 million	India, Nepal
Min Nan Chinese (incl. Hokkien)	50 million	0.4 million	50 million	China
Levantine Arabic	47 million	0.4 million	48 million	Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine
Jin Chinese	—	—	48 million	China
Yoruba	44 million	2 million	46 million	Nigeria

The data comes from Ethnologue.com and is accurate as of 2023, and the map was created using Mapchart.net.

Here is a list of the number of top 40 languages by country of origin:

1. India – 9
2. China – 5
3. Nigeria – 3
4. Indonesia – 2
5. Pakistan – 2
6. Bangladesh – 1
7. Egypt – 1
8. England – 1
9. Ethiopia – 1
10. France – 1
11. Germany – 1
12. Iran – 1
13. Italy – 1
14. Japan – 1
15. Korea (North and South) – 1
16. Nepal – 1
17. Philippines – 1
18. Portugal – 1
19. Russia – 1
20. Saudi Arabia – 1
21. Spain – 1
22. Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine – 1
23. Tanzania – 1
24. Thailand – 1
25. Turkey – 1
26. Vietnam – 1

What language is the official language in the most countries?

English is the official language in by far the most countries at 58, followed by French, Arabic and Spanish. The following languages hold official status (either de jure or de facto) in three or more sovereign states.

In some instances, what is considered a single language in one country may be classified as distinct languages in others. For example, this is the case with Malay and Indonesian, Serbian and Croatian and Hindi and Urdu.

Map created by Justforstev24

1. English: 58 countries
2. French: 28 countries
3. Arabic: 23 countries and Palestine
4. Spanish: 20 countries
5. Portuguese: 9 countries
6. German: 6 countries
7. Russian: 5 countries
8. Serbo-Croatian: 4 countries
9. Malay: 4 countries
10. Swahili: 4 countries (5 counting Comorian)
11. Italian: 3 countries and Vatican City
12. Persian: 3 countries
13. Dutch: 3 countries (4 counting Afrikaans)
14. Somali: 3 countries
15. Sotho: 3 countries
16. Standard Chinese (Mandarin): 2 countries and Taiwan
17. Tamil: 3 countries
18. Hindi–Urdu: 3 countries (counting Fijian Hindi)

It should also be noted that the US, UK and Australia do not have official languages although are all majority English speaking countries.

What are the most spoken languages in the world by native speakers?

The most spoken language in the world in 2024 by native speakers is Mandarin, followed by Spanish and English. Here is the latest data (note data is for 2024 rather than 2023 so differs slightly from the numbers above):

1. Mandarin Chinese – 941 million
2. Spanish – 486 million
3. English – 380 million
4. Hindi – 345 million
5. Bengali – 237 million
6. Portuguese – 236 million
7. Russian – 148 million
8. Japanese – 123 million
9. Yue Chinese – 86 million
10. Vietnamese – 85 million
11. Turkish – 84 million
12. Wu Chinese – 83 million
13. Marathi – 83 million
14. Telugu – 83 million
15. Western Punjabi – 82 million
16. Korean – 81 million
17. Tamil – 79 million
18. Egyptian Arabic – 78 million
19. Standard German – 76 million
20. French – 74 million
21. Urdu – 70 million
22. Javanese – 68 million
23. Italian – 64 million
24. Iranian Persian – 62 million
25. Gujarati – 58 million
26. Hausa – 54 million
27. Bhojpuri – 53 million
28. Levantine Arabic – 51 million
29. Southern Min – 51 million

What is the most spoken second language in the world?

English is by far the most spoken second language in the world with over 1 billion speakers worldwide. This is followed by Modern Standard Arabic, Hindi and French. Below is a complete list of languages with at least 40 million second language speakers:

1. English – 1.077 billion
2. Modern Standard Arabic – 274 million
3. Hindi – 266 million
4. French – 229 million
5. Mandarin Chinese – 199 million
6. Urdu – 161 million
7. Indonesian – 155 million
8. Nigerian Pidgin – 116 million
9. Russian – 108 million
10. Spanish – 74 million
11. Standard German – 58 million
12. Swahili – 55 million
13. Tagalog – 54 million
14. Thai – 40 million

Which language has the most words?

This is an almost impossible question to answer, but here are the languages with the most words in the dictionary.

The following languages have 375,000+ words in their dictionary:

1. Tamil (Sorkuvai) – 1,516,952 words
2. Korean (Urimalsaem) – 1,149,538 words
3. Portuguese (Aulete Digital) – 818,000 words
4. Finnish (RedFox Pro) – 800,000 words
5. English (English Wiktionary) – 755,865 words
6. Swedish (Svenska Akademiens ordbok) – 600,000 words
7. Italian (Grande Dizionario Hoepli Italiano) – 500,000 words
8. Japanese (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten) – 500,000 words
9. Lithuanian (Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian) – 500,000 words
10. Northern Kurdish (Kurdish Wiktionary) – 411,864 words
11. French (French Wiktionary) – 408,078 words
12. Serbo-Croatian (Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika) – 400,000 words
13. Dutch (Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal) – 400,000 words
14. Chinese (Hanyu Da Cidian) – 378,103 words

What is the most difficult language to learn?

The difficulty of learning a language can vary greatly depending on an individual’s native language, linguistic background, and personal aptitude. However, some languages are generally considered more difficult to learn for native English speakers. Here are a few commonly cited examples:

1. Mandarin Chinese:
   • Writing System: The Chinese writing system is logographic, meaning each character represents a word or a meaningful part of a word, rather than sounds as in alphabetic systems.
   • Tones: Mandarin has four tones, and the meaning of a word can change based on the tone used.
   • Grammar: While not as complex as some languages, Chinese grammar differs significantly from English.
2. Arabic:
   • Script: Arabic uses a script that is written from right to left.
   • Sounds: It contains sounds that are unfamiliar to English speakers.
   • Dialects: There are significant regional dialects which can differ greatly from the Modern Standard Arabic.
3. Japanese:
   • Writing Systems: Japanese uses three different scripts: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.
   • Grammar: Japanese grammar, including the use of particles and honorifics, is quite different from English.
   • Vocabulary: It has a large number of loanwords from Chinese, which can be challenging.
4. Korean:
   • Grammar: Korean grammar can be difficult due to its use of honorifics and verb conjugations.
   • Writing System: While Hangul is relatively easy to learn, understanding the language’s use of Sino-Korean characters and vocabulary can be challenging.
5. Russian:
   • Alphabet: Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which requires learning a new script.
   • Grammar: Russian grammar includes complex case systems, verb aspects, and gendered nouns.
6. Hungarian:
   • Grammar: Hungarian has 18 cases and a complex system of vowel harmony.
   • Vocabulary: It is a non-Indo-European language, so its vocabulary is very different from that of English.
7. Icelandic:
   • Grammar: Icelandic has retained many archaic features and has complex grammar rules.
   • Vocabulary: It has unique vocabulary and little external influence, making it difficult for non-native speakers.

These languages are considered difficult due to various factors such as unfamiliar scripts, complex grammar rules, and pronunciation challenges.

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