Most spoken languages
English has the most total speakers at 1,493 million, ahead of Mandarin at 1,183 million, but Mandarin leads on native speakers with 988 million.
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What the data shows
- English ranks #1 with 1,493M, ahead of Mandarin Chinese (1,183M) and Hindi (611M).
About this chart
English is the most spoken language in the world with 1,493 million total speakers, but only 372 million of them learned it first. The other 1,121 million use it as a second language. Mandarin Chinese has 1,183 million total speakers and the most native speakers, 988 million. Hindi (611 million) and Spanish (561 million) rank third and fourth, and Spanish has 487 million native speakers, more than English. French has 334 million speakers, 258 million of them second-language users.
The figures are Ethnologue's 2026 edition and count first-language plus second-language speakers. Ethnologue excludes macrolanguages such as Arabic and Chinese, so Mandarin, Modern Standard Arabic (335 million, all second-language) and Egyptian Arabic (118 million) appear separately. Hindi and Urdu are also counted separately; combined they would be about 857 million. English excludes creoles, and Nigerian Pidgin (121 million) is the only creole on the list.
The data
Source: Ethnologue (SIL) 2026 edition, 'What are the top 200 most spoken languages?', as reproduced in Wikipedia, List of languages by total number of speakers. Retrieved November 4, 2026. Total = first-language plus second-language speakers, in millions, as printed in Ethnologue's 2026 edition. Ethnologue excludes macrolanguages (Arabic, Chinese, Malay, Persian, Lahnda, Pashto), so Mandarin, Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Arabic are listed separately; Hindi and Urdu are counted separately (they are mutually intelligible in colloquial form). English excludes creoles. Earlier editions gave higher English totals (for example about 1.5 billion in 2025).
| Date | English | Mandarin Chinese | Hindi | Spanish | Modern Standard Arabic | French | Bengali | Portuguese | Indonesian | Urdu | Russian | Standard German | Japanese | Nigerian Pidgin | Egyptian Arabic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total speakers (millions) | 1,493M | 1,183M | 611M | 561M | 335M | 334M | 274M | 269M | 255M | 246M | 210M | 133M | 126M | 121M | 118M |
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most spoken language in the world?
English, with 1,493 million total speakers in Ethnologue's 2026 edition, including 372 million native speakers and 1,121 million second-language speakers. Mandarin Chinese is second with 1,183 million.
Which language has the most native speakers?
Mandarin Chinese, with 988 million first-language speakers. Spanish is next in this data with 487 million, ahead of English with 372 million.
Are Hindi and Urdu counted as one language?
No. Ethnologue lists Hindi (611 million) and Urdu (246 million) separately, although they are mutually intelligible in colloquial form. Added together they would total about 857 million speakers.
Where does this data come from?
Ethnologue (SIL) 2026 edition, 'What are the top 200 most spoken languages?', as reproduced in Wikipedia, List of languages by total number of speakers. Retrieved November 4, 2026. Total = first-language plus second-language speakers, in millions, as printed in Ethnologue's 2026 edition. Ethnologue excludes macrolanguages (Arabic, Chinese, Malay, Persian, Lahnda, Pashto), so Mandarin, Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Arabic are listed separately; Hindi and Urdu are counted separately (they are mutually intelligible in colloquial form). English excludes creoles. Earlier editions gave higher English totals (for example about 1.5 billion in 2025). You can download the full table as a CSV from this page.
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