Most spoken languages in the world

There are more than 2,700 different languages spoken in the world, with more than 7 000 dialects, totaling, according to Ethnologue language dictionary, in 7,111 living languages in existence today.

When calculated by first and second language use, English is the most spoken language in the world.

List of most spoken languages in the world

Rank Language Total speakers – Language origin

1 English 1,132 million – Indo-European

2 Mandarin Chinese 1,117 million – Sino-Tibetan

3 Hindi 615 million – Indo-European

4 Spanish 534 million – Indo-European

5 French 280 million – Indo-European

6 Standard Arabic 274 million – Afro-Asiatic

7 Bengali 265 million – Indo-European

8 Russian 258 million – Indo-European

9 Portuguese 234 million – Indo-European

10 Indonesian 199 million – Austronesian

Most spoken first languages

The totals on first languages (native language or mother tongue) have English only in 3rd place with Mandarin as the world’s most spoken first language.

Rank Language Total speakers

1 Mandarin Chinese 918 million

2 Spanish 460 million

3 English 379 million

4 Hindi 341 million

5 Bengali 228 million

6 Portuguese 221 million

7 Russian 154 million

8 Japanese 128 million

9 Western Punjabi 93 million

10 Marathi 83 million

For a complete list and rankings, see Visual Capitalist 100 most spoken languages.