The world in which we live is diverse. There are various kinds of people living all around the planet. They speak different languages, eat different foods, and live different lifestyles. Do you know there are more than 7000 different languages spoken around the globe? Out of these 7000 languages, only 23 languages cover more than half the world’s population. English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi are some of the most spoken languages in the world.
At the same time, you should note that there are a few endangered languages as well. 40% of languages in the world are in danger of getting extinct with less than 1000 speakers. In today’s post, we will discuss the list of most spoken languages in the world 2023.
Top 40 Most Spoken Languages in the world 2023
Please note that the list we are going to provide is based on the total number of total speakers. It is not on the basis of total number of native speakers. Let’s not waste further time and get started with our list of the most spoken languages in the world.
| Rank | Name of the language | Family of the language | Total Speakers |
| 1st | English | Indo-European | Over 1 billion |
| 2nd | Mandarin Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Over 1 billion |
| 3rd | Hindi | Indo-European | Over 600 million |
| 4th | Spanish | Indo-European | Over 540 million |
| 5th | French | Indo-European | Over 270 million |
| 6th | Standard Arabic | Afro-Asiatic | Over 270 million |
| 7th | Bengali | Indo-European | Over 270 million |
| 8th | Russian | Indo-European | Over 250 million |
| 9th | Portuguese | Indo-European | Over 250 million |
| 10th | Urdu (excluding Hindi) | Indo-European | Over 230 million |
| 11th | Indonesia (excluding Malay) | Austronesian | Over 190 million |
| 12th | Standard German | Indo-European | Over 130 million |
| 13th | Japanese | Japonic | Over 120 million |
| 14th | Nigerian Pidgin | English Creole | Over 120 million |
| 15th | Marathi | Indo-European | Over 90 million |
| 16th | Telugu | Dravidian | Over 90 million |
| 17th | Turkish | Turkic | Over 80 million |
| 18th | Tamil | Dravidian | Over 80 million |
| 19th | Yue Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Over 80 million |
| 20th | Vietnamese | Austroasiatic | Over 80 million |
| 21st | Tagalog | Austronesian language | Over 80 million |
| 22nd | Wu Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Over 80 million |
| 23rd | Korean | Koreanic | Over 80 million |
| 24th | Iranian Persian (excluding Dari and Tajik) | Persian | Over 70 million |
| 25th | Hausa | Afro-Asiatic | Over 70 million |
| 26th | Egyptian Spoken Arabic (excluding other arabic dialects) | Indo-European | Over 70 million |
| 27th | Swahili | Afro-Asiatic | Over 70 million |
| 28th | Javanese | Austronesian | Over 60 million |
| 29th | Italian | Indo-European | Over 60 million |
| 30th | Western Punjabi | Indo-European | Over 60 million |
| 31st | Kannada | Dravidian | Over 60 million |
| 32nd | Gujarati | Indo-European | Over 60 million |
| 32rd | Thai | Kra–Dai | Over 60 million |
| 34th | Amharic | Afroasiatic | Over 55 million |
| 35th | Bhojpuri | Indo-European | Over 50 million |
| 36th | Eastern Punjabi (excl. Western punjabi) | Indo-European | Over 50 million |
| 37th | Min Nan Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Over 45 million |
| 38th | Jin Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Over 45 million |
| 39th | Yoruba | Niger–Congo | Over 45 million |
| 40th | Hakka Chinese | Sino-Tibetan | Over 40 million |
also Check: Most Effective methods for learning a new language
Details of Top 10 most spoken languages in the world
Let’s go through some interesting facts about the top 10 languages in the world in 2023.
- English – English is the most spoken language in the world in 2023. It is a global language that is used by default for international business, technology, tourism, etc. As per a report published by Internet World Stats 2019, a bilingual person who knows English and Spanish can understand 1 out of 3 people in the world.
- Mandarin Chinese – Mandarin Chinese is the second most popular language in the world. Apart from mainland China, you can find Mandarin Chinese speakers in several other countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, etc. It is one of the two languages that have more than a billion speakers.
- Hindi – Hindi is the most popular language in North India. It is one of the two official languages of the Government of India, along with the English language. In India, Hindi is an official language in 9 States and 3 Union Territories. Apart from this, Hindi is also spoken in countries like Fiji, Nepal, South Africa, and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
- Spanish – In terms of native speakers, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world. In addition to this, Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet. In addition to spain, Spanish is widely spoken in countries like colombia, Argentina, Mexico, etc.
- Arabic – The next language on our list is Arabic. It is the liturgical language of Islam. It is the most popular language in Middle East. Currently, Arabic is an official language in 26 countries. This language is often associated with the Arabic culture. Arabic is most spoken in the following countries – Libya, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, etc.
- Bengali – Bengali is spoken most in southeast Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language in Bangladesh. At the same time, it is the second most widely spoken language in India. 98% of Bangladeshis have Bengali as their first language. Plus, it is the official language of the states of West Bengal, Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam.
- French – French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents. The language spreads around the world during the colonial era. It is estimated that this language has 76 million native speakers; about 235 million daily and fluent speakers. In addition to France, you will find a large number of French speakers in the following countries – Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, USA, etc.
- Russian – Russian is a language that is native to Russia. It is an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and is used widely as a lingua franca throughout Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to some extent in the Baltic countries. There are more than 258 million Russian speakers around the world.
- Portuguese – With more than 257 million total speakers, Portuguese is amongst the top 10 languages in the world in terms of the number of speakers. It is also the third most spoken European language in 2023 (on the basis of native speakers) after English and Spanish. It is the sole official language of the following countries – Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Brazil
- Urdu – Urdu is a language that is mostly spoken in India and Pakistan. It is the national language of Pakistan. Apart from this, it is one of the official languages in the several Indian States. In Nepal, Urdu is registered as a regional dialect.
The popularity of a language depends upon various factors such as the number of native speakers, utility, geographical location, etc. What is your native language? Do let us know in the comment section. You can also share your feedback and suggestions in the comment box.
Ï’m from Iran. This statistics isn’t true. Iran has over 84 million population and the only language is Persian. And in Tajikistan and Afghanistan it is also official language
Hii Ali, How are you from India Assam.
Aliyu Usman
I’m from Africa country Nigeria native language HAUSA tnx
I love Spanish speaking countries
I quite disagree with you, in Nigeria alone over 200 million people can speak Hausa, and remember countries like Niger Cameroon Benin Sudan libya Chad Gabon can also communicate in Hausa ,please writer review the literature.
I am from jammu and kashmir. I speak Urdu as official language, Kashmiri, Pahari, dogri, gojri, hindi apart from this English is my second language and I can read Arabic fluently and can read FRENCH a bit. 🙂
I am from Hungary, and I speak in Magyar (Hungarian).
This language is spoken globally only by the Hungarian minorities.
The only way this language can get more popular if the Hungarian ladies bring up more babies. 🙂
I am Lur from Iran, my mother tongue is Persian!!!. All people from Iran, Daris in Aghanistan and all Tajiks from Tajikestan speak this Language and we are sick to see Angelo-Saxons and other enemies of Iran tryin to separate our nation. We are the same nation and speak the same language. We understand eachother without any problem.
Turkish is spoken in Iran the east and west Azerbaijan ardebil and zanjan and more than half of the people in the Qazvin Karaj and Tehran speak turkish in addition there are Qashqai,khorasan and Turkmen turkish in iran
Well, in every big country there are different languages, but his mean is all of the Iranians can speak persian and because of the proximity, it is better to add Dari and Tajik dialects to persian when counting a languages.
Approximately 150 million people can speak this language.
im from sudan i speak arabic YA
Hii poo, I am from India.
I am from Africa, Nigeria. And my native language is Hausa.
My native language is Hausa. From Nigeria!
This statistic is wrong with persian;persian dari and tajik are not separate at all,you separated it.in fact,more than one hundred and forty milion people have persian as their first or second language.