Here is an exciting look at the Top 10 most widely spoken languages not only in terms of the number of native speakers but also of other people who understand and fluently speak the language.
1. Mandarin – 1 billion-Plus
This is something that is expected as it is mainly based in the most densely populated country in the entire planet. It leads the second running language, English, by an astounding margin of 2 to 1!
2. English – 508 million
Although English is hanging at the coattails of Mandarin, it is the official language of more countries compared to any other language.
3. Hindustani – 497 million
Hindustani is the major language in India and covers a great number of local dialects and the most common is Hindi.
4. Spanish – 392 million
Spanish is spoken in just about every Latin American countries, including Spain, the US and Cuba.
5. Russian – 277 million
Russian is one of the official languages of the UN and it is spoken not only in Russia but also in Kazakhstan, Belarus and even in the US, to name a few.
6. Arabic – 246 million
Arabic is considered as the oldest spoken language and is the language in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
7. Bengali – 211 million
It is the official language in Bangladesh which has about 120 million people.
8. Portuguese – 191 million
Due to the active participation of Portugal in the early explorations, the language was able to take a foothold in practically all corners of the globe. It is now spoken in Mozambique, Macau, Brazil, Venezuela and Angola.
9. Malay-Indonesian – 159 million
The figure may be a bit loose, however, the claim has its strong basis and can easily be validated. By merely looking at the population of Malaysia and Indonesia, you can already deduce that this language should be in our top 10 list.
10. French – 129 million
French completes our circle of ten of the most widely spoken languages. There are many French speakers in countries like Canada, Belgium, Cameroon, Rwanda, and of course, France.
You have done a nice job with this top 10 list site and I should know I run a friendly competing site, toptenz.net. This is a good idea for a list and we took the other angle and did the least spoken languages: http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-rarest-languages.php
Take a moment and give it a read.
Congrats on a well done site!
Hello,
Thanks, I came across of your site several times. GreatJob. Nice Rankings, Good Traffic. I will read the article.
[…] 文章原载：Top 10 Languages That are Most Widely Spoken […]
The French map you presented here is completely wrong. In Canada the French language is barely spoken in Montreal and being sophisticated by English and Arabic in North Africa. The French language is not doing good at all it numbers are down all over the world just because of the people who are teaching it.
In Algeria where I’m from the French language is being forced to people and people are realizing that they have better future by learning Spanish, English and other languages than the French.
If the French want to save their language in North Africa they have to teach their teachers and people to respect the Arabic language. In Algeria most French speaking people are considered as enemies of the Arabic language. The country is divided in two because of this stupidity.
We have thousands of Algerian who consider themselves as proud to don’t speak the Arabic language and that why the French language is loosing the battle in Algeria.
I love the French language but I hate the way I learned it.
Thanks,