Last updated: February 1999
The population figures in this table refer to first language speakers in allcountries. Note that these figures are updated from the 13th Edition of theEthnologue (1996).
Click on the language name to view its home country Ethnologue entry. Forother countries in which the language is spoken, click on the three-letterabbreviation.
| Rank | Language Name | Primary Country | Population |
| 1 | CHINESE, MANDARIN [ | China | 885,000,000 |
| 2 | SPANISH [ | Spain | 332,000,000 |
| 3 | ENGLISH [ | United Kingdom | 322,000,000 |
| 4 | BENGALI [ | Bangladesh | 189,000,000 |
| 5 | HINDI [ | India | 182,000,000 |
| 6 | PORTUGUESE [ | Portugal | 170,000,000 |
| 7 | RUSSIAN [ | Russia | 170,000,000 |
| 8 | JAPANESE [ | Japan | 125,000,000 |
| 9 | GERMAN, STANDARD [ | Germany | 98,000,000 |
| 10 | CHINESE, WU [ | China | 77,175,000 |
| 11 | JAVANESE [ | Indonesia, Java, Bali | 75,500,800 |
| 12 | KOREAN [ | Korea, South | 75,000,000 |
| 13 | FRENCH [ | France | 72,000,000 |
| 14 | VIETNAMESE [ | Viet Nam | 67,662,000 |
| 15 | TELUGU [ | India | 66,350,000 |
| 16 | CHINESE, YUE [ | China | 66,000,000 |
| 17 | MARATHI [ | India | 64,783,000 |
| 18 | TAMIL [ | India | 63,075,000 |
| 19 | TURKISH [ | Turkey | 59,000,000 |
| 20 | URDU [ | Pakistan | 58,000,000 |
| 21 | CHINESE, MIN NAN [ | China | 49,000,000 |
| 22 | CHINESE, JINYU [ | China | 45,000,000 |
| 23 | GUJARATI [ | India | 44,000,000 |
| 24 | POLISH [ | Poland | 44,000,000 |
| 25 | ARABIC, EGYPTIAN SPOKEN [ | Egypt | 42,500,000 |
| 26 | UKRAINIAN [ | Ukraine | 41,000,000 |
| 27 | ITALIAN [ | Italy | 37,000,000 |
| 28 | CHINESE, XIANG [ | China | 36,015,000 |
| 29 | MALAYALAM [ | India | 34,022,000 |
| 30 | CHINESE, HAKKA [ | China | 34,000,000 |
| 31 | KANNADA [ | India | 33,663,000 |
| 32 | ORIYA [ | India | 31,000,000 |
| 33 | PANJABI, WESTERN [ | Pakistan | 30,000,000 |
| 34 | SUNDA [ | Indonesia | 27,000,000 |
| 35 | PANJABI, EASTERN [ | India | 26,013,000 |
| 36 | ROMANIAN [ | Romania | 26,000,000 |
| 37 | BHOJPURI [ | India | 25,000,000 |
| 38 | AZERBAIJANI, SOUTH [ | Iran | 24,364,000 |
| 39 | FARSI, WESTERN [ | Iran | 24,280,000 |
| 40 | MAITHILI [ | India | 24,260,000 |
| 41 | HAUSA [ | Nigeria | 24,200,000 |
| 42 | ARABIC, ALGERIAN SPOKEN [ | Algeria | 22,400,000 |
| 43 | BURMESE [ | Myanmar | 22,000,000 |
| 44 | SERBO-CROATIAN [ | Yugoslavia | 21,000,000 |
| 45 | CHINESE, GAN [ | China | 20,580,000 |
| 46 | AWADHI [ | India | 20,540,000 |
| 47 | THAI [ | Thailand | 20,047,000 |
| 48 | DUTCH [ | Netherlands | 20,000,000 |
| 49 | YORUBA [ | Nigeria | 20,000,000 |
| 50 | SINDHI [ | Pakistan | 19,720,000 |
| 51 | ARABIC, MOROCCAN SPOKEN [ | Morocco | 19,542,000 |
| 52 | ARABIC, SAIDI SPOKEN [ | Egypt | 18,900,000 |
| 53 | UZBEK, NORTHERN [ | Uzbekistan | 18,466,000 |
| 54 | MALAY [ | Malaysia, Peninsular | 17,600,000 |
| 55 | AMHARIC [ | Ethiopia | 17,413,000 |
| 56 | INDONESIAN [ | Indonesia | 17,050,000 |
| 57 | IGBO [ | Nigeria | 17,000,000 |
| 58 | TAGALOG [ | Philippines | 17,000,000 |
| 59 | NEPALI [ | Nepal | 16,056,000 |
| 60 | ARABIC, SUDANESE SPOKEN [ | Sudan | 16,000,000 |
| 61 | SARAIKI [ | Pakistan | 15,015,000 |
| 62 | CEBUANO [ | Philippines | 15,000,000 |
| 63 | ARABIC, NORTH LEVANTINE SPOKEN [ | Syria | 15,000,000 |
| 64 | THAI, NORTHEASTERN [ | Thailand | 15,000,000 |
| 65 | ASSAMESE [ | India | 14,634,000 |
| 66 | HUNGARIAN [ | Hungary | 14,500,000 |
| 67 | CHITTAGONIAN [ | Bangladesh | 14,000,000 |
| 68 | ARABIC, MESOPOTAMIAN SPOKEN [ | Iraq | 13,900,000 |
| 69 | MADURA [ | Indonesia, Java, Bali | 13,694,000 |
| 70 | SINHALA [ | Sri Lanka | 13,220,000 |
| 71 | HARYANVI [ | India | 13,000,000 |
| 72 | MARWARI [ | India | 12,104,000 |
| 73 | CZECH [ | Czech Republic | 12,000,000 |
| 74 | GREEK [ | Greece | 12,000,000 |
| 75 | MAGAHI [ | India | 12,000,000 |
| 76 | CHHATTISGARHI [ | India | 10,985,000 |
| 77 | DECCAN [ | India | 10,709,800 |
| 78 | CHINESE, MIN BEI [ | China | 10,537,000 |
| 79 | BELARUSAN [ | Belarus | 10,200,000 |
| 80 | ZHUANG, NORTHERN [ | China | 10,000,000 |
| 81 | ARABIC, NAJDI SPOKEN [ | Saudi Arabia | 9,800,000 |
| 82 | PASHTO, NORTHERN [ | Pakistan | 9,685,000 |
| 83 | SOMALI [ | Somalia | 9,472,000 |
| 84 | MALAGASY [ | Madagascar | 9,398,700 |
| 85 | ARABIC, TUNISIAN SPOKEN [ | Tunisia | 9,308,000 |
| 86 | RWANDA [ | Rwanda | 9,306,800 |
| 87 | ZULU [ | South Africa | 9,142,000 |
| 88 | BULGARIAN [ | Bulgaria | 9,000,000 |
| 89 | SWEDISH [ | Sweden | 9,000,000 |
| 90 | LOMBARD [ | Italy | 8,974,000 |
| 91 | OROMO, WEST-CENTRAL [ | Ethiopia | 8,920,000 |
| 92 | PASHTO, SOUTHERN [ | Afghanistan | 8,206,000 |
| 93 | KAZAKH [ | Kazakhstan | 8,000,000 |
| 94 | ILOCANO [ | Philippines | 8,000,000 |
| 95 | TATAR [ | Russia | 8,000,000 |
| 96 | FULFULDE, NIGERIAN [ | Nigeria | 7,611,000 |
| 97 | ARABIC, SANAANI SPOKEN [ | Yemen | 7,600,000 |
| 98 | UYGHUR [ | China | 7,595,512 |
| 99 | HAITIAN CREOLE FRENCH [ | Haiti | 7,372,000 |
| 100 | AZERBAIJANI, NORTH [ | Azerbaijan | 7,059,000 |
| 101 | NAPOLETANO-CALABRESE [ | Italy | 7,047,400 |
| 102 | KHMER, CENTRAL [ | Cambodia | 7,039,200 |
| 103 | FARSI, EASTERN [ | Afghanistan | 7,000,000 |
| 104 | AKAN [ | Ghana | 7,000,000 |
| 105 | HILIGAYNON [ | Philippines | 7,000,000 |
| 106 | KURMANJI [ | Turkey | 7,000,000 |
| 107 | SHONA [ | Zimbabwe | 7,000,000 |
The entire database from which this table is extracted is available as atab-delimited file suitable for importing into a database or spreadsheetprogram:
Part of the Ethnologue, 13th Edition, Barbara F.Grimes, Editor.
Copyright © 1996, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc. All rightsreserved.
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