This is a list of languages by total number of speakers.
It is difficult to define what
constitutes a language as ❤️ opposed to a dialect. For example, Chinese and Arabic are
sometimes considered single languages, but each includes several mutually
unintelligible ❤️ varieties, and so they are sometimes considered language families
instead. Conversely, colloquial registers of Hindi and Urdu are almost completely
❤️ mutually intelligible, and are sometimes classified as one language, Hindustani. Such
rankings should be used with caution, because it is ❤️ not possible to devise a coherent
set of linguistic criteria for distinguishing languages in a dialect
continuum.[1]
There is no single ❤️ criterion for how much knowledge is sufficient to be
counted as a second-language speaker. For example, English has about 450 ❤️ million native
speakers but, depending on the criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as two
billion speakers.[2]
There ❤️ are also difficulties in obtaining reliable counts of
speakers, which vary over time because of population change and language shift. ❤️ In some
areas, there is no reliable census data, the data is not current, or the census may not
record ❤️ languages spoken, or record them ambiguously. Sometimes speaker populations are
exaggerated for political reasons, or speakers of minority languages may ❤️ be
underreported in favor of a national language.[3]
Ethnologue (2024) [ edit ]
The
following languages are listed as having 45 million ❤️ or more total speakers in the 26th
edition of Ethnologue published in 2024.[4] Entries identified by Ethnologue as
macrolanguages (such ❤️ as Arabic, Persian, Malay, Pashto, Sindhi, and Chinese,
encompassing all their respective varieties) are not included in this section.
CIA
World ❤️ Factbook (2024) [ edit ]
The World Factbook, produced by the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), estimates the ten most spoken languages ❤️ (L1 + L2) in 2024 as
follows:[46]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ [10] Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is
❤️ not an L1. Arabic speakers first learn their respective local dialect . MSA is acquired
through formal education. ^ Ethnologue ❤️ considers that Filipino is a standardized
variety of the Tagalog language with no speakers. Tagalog and Filipino are defined as
❤️ two different languages in the ISO 639 standard.considers that Filipino is a
standardized variety of the Tagalog language with no ❤️ speakers.