Daily Almanac for
Oct 15, 2008
Search White Pages
Info search tips
Bio search tips

Most Widely Spoken Languages
in the World

LanguageApprox. number
of speakers
 1. Chinese (Mandarin)1,075,000,000
 2. English514,000,000
 3. Hindustani1496,000,000
 4. Spanish425,000,000
 5. Russian275,000,000
 6. Arabic256,000,000
 7. Bengali215,000,000
 8. Portuguese194,000,000
 9. Malay-Indonesian176,000,000
10. French129,000,000
Source: Ethnologue, 13th Edition, and other sources.
1. Encompasses multiple dialects, including Hindi and Urdu.

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

World Scrabble Championships Writing & LanguageMost Studied Foreign Languages
in the U.S.
    • Cite
    • Print
    • Bookmark

More on Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World from Infoplease:


Premium Partner Content
HighBeam Research

Related content from HighBeam Research on: Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World

Additional search results provided by HighBeam Research, LLC. © Copyright 2005. All rights reserved.