Top 100 Languages In The World (2024)

The top languages in the world are commonly arranged according to the estimated number of speakers they have. Apparently that is in a bid to arrange them in order of importance, or viability- they are they languages that are least in danger of dying out.

However, another important factor which seems to have been completely ignored, is the fact that language can be an economic factor. People aiming for a career in business often choose a second language that will give them a career edge- because languages can make one rich.

The top languages in the world should therefore have an economic classification as shown by the areas where they are spoken.

Top 100 Languages In The World

1. English

1.132 Billion Speakers

English Language is the most important language in the world; it is spoken by about 1.132 billion people. The most impressive thing about this language is that its speakers are spread throughout the world- English is spoken in every continent on the planet. This is as a direct result of the British Empire’s conquest of the world.

This gives English a distinct advantage; it explains why English is the preferred language of communication in political and business circles, and why young people are often encouraged to attain proficiency in this language so as to boost their chances in the business world.

2. Mandarin Chinese

1.117 Billion Speakers

Mandarin Chinese is not too far behind; it is one of the world’s top languages with about 1.1 billion speakers. This is the language of China; with a population of 1.4 billion people; the largest in the world.

Chinese is also spoken in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Singapore. There are Chinese Populations (often called Chinatowns) in many countries across the world.

Chinese is powerful language in the world of business; in western countries it is one of the most sought after languages for those who aspire to go far in business.

3. Hindi

615 Million Speakers

Hindi as we know it today is the modern version of an ancient language which is called Indo-Aryan because of its cultural origins. The language is spoken by a large section of the part of the population of India; especially in the northern, central, eastern, and western India.

It is important to mention that India is just as important as any other country in the world; it has a population of 1.4 billion people; although there are several languages spoken in that country.

Another thing to note is that most people in India at least understand Hindi; and there are large Indian Diasporas in every corner of the world.

4. Spanish

534 Million

Spanish is the language of Spain. It is an Indo European language; a term describing the geographical location where the language is most prevalent. The language is also described as a Romance Language; a term that describes its evolution- it came from Late Latin, or the spoken form.

Spain was quite the Empire leading up to our modern times, and so the Spanish language was spread by force of arms to a large section of the world. Today, Spanish is spoken in countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Guatemala, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Equatorial Guinea

5. Indonesian

300 Million

Indonesian is the language of Indonesia. It is an Austronesian language; one that is very similar to standard Malay with which it is associated. Indonesian language has somewhere around 300 speakers; which is not surprising because Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world.

Indonesian is spoken in Indonesia; it is also spoken in East Timor- as a language of commerce.

6. French

280 Million

French is the language of France; it is also an Indo-European language as per the geographical location where it is mostly prevalent. French is also a Romance Language; meaning that Latin is its root.

The French were also aggressive conquerors during the 16^th and 17^th Centuries; although while the Spanish concentrated on South and Central America; the French concentrated on Africa. Therefore, French is spoken in Togo, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, and Haiti.

French is also spoken in Canada, Luxembourg, Monaco, and Switzerland.

7. Arabic

274 Million

Arabic is an Afro Asiatic language; its origins are the Middle East and its surrounding cultures. Arabic is one of the top languages in the world by importance; it is spoken by around 274 million people, and has great cultural and religious importance.

Arabic was spread by force of the sword through much of North, West, and Central Africa; as well as other parts of the world.

Arabic is spoken in Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, and Yemen. Arabic is also spoken to a lesser extent in many other countries.

8. Bengali

265 Million

Bengali is a language of India; it too is an Indo-Aryan language. Bengali is spoken by nearly 300 million people, but the region where it is prevalent is not too big. Bengali is spoken in the Bengal region of South Asia.

Bengali is spoken in India and Pakistan; and in whatever countries that have sizable diaspora populations of citizens of those countries. Bengali is an ancient language; it has developed in its spoken and written forms for over 1300 years.

9. Portuguese

234 Million

Portuguese is the language of Portugal; it too is a Romance Language; which means it originates from the language of the Romans who lived in the area which is now Portugal. With around 230 million speakers, this is one of the world’s biggest languages.

Portuguese is spoken in Portugal, and it is the official language of Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. Portuguese is also widely spoken in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. It has a wider area where it is spoken.

10. Russian

200 Million

Russian is the language of Russia. It is of East Slavic origin; and belongs to the Indo European language family. Russian is spoken by over 258 million people; and it is mainly spoken in Russia. Russian was once a more powerful language; during the time of the Soviet Union it was the language of Government and Commerce.

Russian is still a lingua franca in some countries of the former Soviet Union; such as Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is also spoken and used for commerce in Ukraine and the Caucasus. There are about 2 million Russian speakers in Israel.

The following is a more extensive list of the top 100 languages in the world.

Position	Language	Total Speakers	Native Speakers	Language Origins and Classification
1	English	1,132M	379M	Indo-European
2	Mandarin Chinese	1,117M	918M	Sino-Tibetan
3	Hindi	615M	341M	Indo-European
4	Spanish	534M	460M	Indo-European
5	French	280M	77M	Indo-European
6	Standard Arabic	274M		Afro-Asiatic
7	Bengali	265M	228M	Indo-European
8	Russian	258M	154M	Indo-European
9	Portuguese	234M	221M	Indo-European
10	Indonesian	199M	43M	Austronesian
11	Urdu	170M	69M	Indo-European
12	Standard German	132M	76M	Indo-European
13	Japanese	128M	128M	Japanic
14	Swahili	98M	16M	Niger-Congo
15	Marathi	95M	83M	Indo-European
16	Telugu	93M	82M	Dravidian
17	Western Punjabi	93M	93M	Indo-European
18	Wu Chinese	82M	81M	Sino-Tibetan
19	Tamil	81M	75M	Dravidian
20	Turkish	80M	69M	Turkic
21	Korean	77M	77M	Koreanic
22	Vietnamese	77M	76M	Austronesian
23	Yue Chinese	74M	73M	Sino-Tibetan
24	Javanese	68M	68M	Austronesian
25	Italian	68M	65M	Indo-European
26	Egyptian Spoken Arabic	65M	65M	Afro-Asiatic
27	Hausa	63M	44M	Afro-Asiatic
28	Thai	61M	21M	Kra-Dai
29	Gujarati	61M	56M	Indo-European
30	Kannada	56M	44M	Dravidian
31	Iranian Persian	53M	53M	Indo-European
32	Bhojpuri	52M	52M	Indo-European
33	Southern Min Chinese	50M	50M	Sino-Tibetan
34	Hakka Chinese	48M	48M	Sino-Tibetan
35	Jinyu Chinese	47M	47M	Sino-Tibetan
36	Filipino	45M		Austronesian
37	Burmese	43M	33M	Sino-Tibetan
38	Polish	40M	40M	Indo-European
39	Yoruba	40M	38M	Niger-Congo
40	Odia	38M	34M	Indo-European
41	Malayalam	38M	37M	Dravidian
42	Xiang Chinese	37M	37M	Sino-Tibetan
43	Maithili	34M	34M	Indo-European
44	Ukrainian	33M	27M	Indo-European
45	Moroccan Spoken Arabic	33M	27M	Afro-Asiatic
46	Eastern Punjabi	33M	33M	Indo-European
47	Sunda	32M	32M	Austronesian
48	Algerian Spoken Arabic	32M	29M	Afro-Asiatic
49	Sudanese Spoken Arabic	32M	32M	Afro-Asiatic
50	Nigerian Pidgin	30M		Indo-European
51	Zulu	28M	12M	Niger-Congo
52	Igbo	27M	27M	Niger-Congo
53	Amharic	26M	22M	Afro-Asiatic
54	Northern Uzbek	25M	25M	Turkic
55	Sindhi	25M	25M	Indo-European
56	North Levantine Spoken Arabic	25M	25M	Afro-Asiatic
57	Nepali	25M	16M	Indo-European
58	Romanian	24M	24M	Indo-European
59	Tagalog	24M	24M	Austronesian
60	Dutch	23M	23M	Indo-European
61	Sa’idi Spoken Arabic	22M	22M	Afro-Asiatic
62	Gan Chinese	22M	22M	Sino-Tibetan
63	Northern Pashto	21M	21M	Indo-European
64	Magahi	21M	21M	Indo-European
65	Saraiki	20M	20M	Indo-European
66	Xhosa	19M	8M	Niger-Congo
67	Malay	19M	16M	Austronesian
68	Khmer	18M	17M	Austronesian
69	Afrikaans	18M	7M	Indo-European
70	Sinhala	17M	15M	Indo-European
71	Somali	16M	16M	Afro-Asiatic
72	Chhattisgarhi	16M	16M	Indo-European
73	Cebuano	16M	16M	Austronesian
74	Mesopotamian Spoken Arabic	16M	16M	Afro-Asiatic
75	Assamese	15M	15M	Indo-European
76	Northeastern Thai	15M	15M	Kra-Dai
77	Northern Kurdish	15M	15M	Indo-European
78	Hijazi Spoken Arabic	15M	15M	Afro-Asiatic
79	Nigerian Fulfulde	14M	14M	Niger-Congo
80	Bavarian	14M	14M	Indo-European
81	Bamanankan	14M	4M	Niger-Congo
82	South Azerbaijani	14M	14M	Turkic
83	Northern Sotho	14M	5M	Niger-Congo
84	Setswana	14M	6M	Niger-Congo
85	Southern Sotho	14M	6M	Niger-Congo
86	Czech	13M	11M	Indo-European
87	Greek	13M	13M	Indo-European
88	Chittagonian	13M	13M	Indo-European
89	Kazakh	13M	13M	Turkic
90	Swedish	13M	10M	Indo-European
91	Deccan	13M	13M	Indo-European
92	Hungarian	13M	13M	Uralic
93	Jula	12M	2M	Niger-Congo
94	Sadri	12M	5M	Indo-European
95	Kinyarwanda	12M	12M	Niger-Congo
96	Cameroonian Pidgin	12M		Indo-European
97	Sylheti	12M	10M	Indo-European
98	South Levantine Spoken Arabic	12M	12M	Afro-Asiatic
99	Tunisian Spoken Arabic	12M	12M	Afro-Asiatic
100	Sanaani Spoken Arabic	11M	11M	Afro-Asiatic

Closing

When looking at the top 100 languages in the world, one may see those at the bottom as the less viable- going towards extinction. This is not a sure thing; changes may occur in the future which may turn the tide. Furthermore, languages may spread through migration as they once spread through conquest- time will tell.