List of languages by number of native speakers

This article ranks human languages by their number of native speakers.
However, all such rankings should be used with caution, because it is not possible to devise a coherent set of linguistic criteria for distinguishing languages in a dialect continuum.
For example, a language is often defined as a set of varieties that are mutually intelligible, but independent national standard languages may be considered to be separate languages even though they are largely mutually intelligible, as in the case of Danish and Norwegian.
Conversely, many commonly accepted languages, including German, Italian and even English, encompass varieties that are not mutually intelligible.
While Arabic is sometimes considered a single language centred on Modern Standard Arabic, other authors describe its mutually unintelligible varieties as separate languages.
Similarly, Chinese is sometimes viewed as a single language because of a shared culture and common literary language.
It is also common to describe various Chinese dialect groups, such as Mandarin, Wu and Yue, as languages, even though each of these groups contains many mutually unintelligible varieties.
There are also difficulties in obtaining reliable counts of speakers, which vary over time because of population change and language shift.
In some areas, there is no reliable census data, the data is not current, or the census may not record languages spoken, or record them ambiguously.
Sometimes speaker populations are exaggerated for political reasons, or speakers of minority languages may be under-reported in favour of a national language.

Top languages by population

''Ethnologue'' (2019, 22nd edition)

The following languages are listed as having at least 10 million first language speakers in the 2019 edition of Ethnologue, a language reference published by SIL International, which is based in the United States.

Rank	Language	Speakers	% of World pop.	Language family	Branch
1	Mandarin Chinese	918	11.922	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
2	Spanish	480	5.994	Indo-European	Romance
3	English	379	4.922	Indo-European	Germanic
4	Hindi	341	4.429	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
5	Bengali	228	2.961	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
6	Portuguese	221	2.870	Indo-European	Romance
7	Russian	154	2.000	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic
8	Japanese	128	1.662	Japonic	Japanese
9	Western Punjabi	92.7	1.204	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
10	Marathi	83.1	1.079	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
11	Telugu	82.0	1.065	Dravidian	South-Central
12	Wu Chinese	81.4	1.057	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
13	Turkish	79.4	1.031	Turkic	Oghuz
14	Korean	77.3	1.004	Koreanic	language isolate
15	French	77.2	1.003	Indo-European	Romance
16	German	76.1	0.988	Indo-European	Germanic
17	Vietnamese	76.0	0.987	Austroasiatic	Vietic
18	Tamil	75.0	0.974	Dravidian	South
19	Yue Chinese	73.1	0.949	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
20	Urdu	68.6	0.891	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
21	Javanese	68.3	0.887	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
22	Italian	64.8	0.842	Indo-European	Romance
23	Egyptian Arabic	64.6	0.839	Afroasiatic	Semitic
24	Gujarati	56.4	0.732	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
25	Iranian Persian	52.8	0.686	Indo-European	Iranian
26	Bhojpuri	52.2	0.678	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
27	Min Nan Chinese	50.1	0.651	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
28	Hakka Chinese	48.2	0.626	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
29	Jin Chinese	46.9	0.609	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
30	Hausa	43.9	0.570	Afroasiatic	Chadic
31	Kannada	43.6	0.566	Dravidian	South
32	Indonesian	43.4	0.564	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
33	Polish	39.7	0.516	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic
34	Yoruba	37.8	0.491	Niger–Congo	Volta–Niger
35	Xiang Chinese	37.3	0.484	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
36	Malayalam	37.1	0.482	Dravidian	South
37	Odia	34.5	0.448	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
38	Maithili	33.9	0.440	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
39	Burmese	32.9	0.427	Sino-Tibetan	Lolo-Burmese
40	Eastern Punjabi	32.6	0.423	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
41	Sunda	32.4	0.421	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
42	Sudanese Arabic	31.9	0.414	Afroasiatic	Semitic
43	Algerian Arabic	29.4	0.382	Afroasiatic	Semitic
44	Moroccan Arabic	27.5	0.357	Afroasiatic	Semitic
45	Ukrainian	27.3	0.355	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic
46	Igbo	27.0	0.351	Niger–Congo	Volta–Niger
47	Northern Uzbek	25.1	0.326	Turkic	Karluk
48	Sindhi	24.6	0.319	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
49	North Levantine Arabic	24.6	0.319	Afroasiatic	Semitic
50	Romanian	24.3	0.316	Indo-European	Romance
51	Tagalog	23.6	0.306	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
52	Dutch	23.1	0.300	Indo-European	Germanic
53	Saʽidi Arabic	22.4	0.291	Afroasiatic	Semitic
54	Gan Chinese	22.1	0.287	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
55	Amharic	21.9	0.284	Afroasiatic	Semitic
56	Northern Pashto	20.9	0.271	Indo-European	Iranian
57	Magahi	20.7	0.269	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
58	Thai	20.7	0.269	Kra–Dai	Tai
59	Saraiki	20.0	0.260	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
60	Khmer	16.6	0.216	Austroasiatic	Khmer
61	Chhattisgarhi	16.3	0.212	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
62	Somali	16.2	0.210	Afroasiatic	Cushitic
63	Malay	16.1	0.209	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
64	Cebuano	15.9	0.206	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
65	Nepali	15.8	0.205	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
66	Mesopotamian Arabic	15.7	0.204	Afroasiatic	Semitic
67	Assamese	15.3	0.199	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
68	Sinhalese	15.3	0.199	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
69	Northern Kurdish	14.6	0.190	Indo-European	Iranian
70	Hejazi Arabic	14.5	0.188	Afroasiatic	Semitic
71	Nigerian Fulfulde	14.5	0.188	Niger–Congo	Senegambian
72	Bavarian	14.1	0.183	Indo-European	Germanic
73	South Azerbaijani	13.8	0.179	Turkic	Oghuz
74	Greek	13.1	0.170	Indo-European	Hellenic
75	Chittagonian	13.0	0.169	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
76	Kazakh	12.9	0.168	Turkic	Kipchak
77	Deccan	12.8	0.166	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
78	Hungarian	12.6	0.164	Uralic	Ugric
79	Kinyarwanda	12.1	0.157	Niger–Congo	Bantu
80	Zulu	12.1	0.157	Niger–Congo	Bantu
81	South Levantine Arabic	11.6	0.151	Afroasiatic	Semitic
82	Tunisian Arabic	11.6	0.151	Afroasiatic	Semitic
83	Sanaani Spoken Arabic	11.4	0.148	Afroasiatic	Semitic
84	Min Bei Chinese	11.0	0.143	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
85	Southern Pashto	10.9	0.142	Indo-European	Iranian
86	Rundi	10.8	0.140	Niger–Congo	Bantu
87	Czech	10.7	0.139	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic
88	Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic	10.5	0.136	Afroasiatic	Semitic
89	Uyghur	10.4	0.135	Turkic	Karluk
90	Min Dong Chinese	10.3	0.134	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
91	Sylheti	10.3	0.134	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan

''Nationalencyklopedin'' (2010)

The following table contains the top 100 languages by estimated number of native speakers in the 2007 edition of the Swedish encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin. As census methods in different countries vary to a considerable extent, and given that some countries do not record language in their censuses, any list of languages by native speakers, or total speakers, is effectively based on estimates. Updated estimates from 2010 are also provided.
The top eleven languages have additional figures from the 2010 edition of the Nationalencyklopedin. Numbers above 95 million are rounded off to the nearest 5 million.

Rank	Language	Native speakers in millions 2007	Percentage of world population
1	Mandarin	935	%
2	Spanish	390	%
3	English	365	%
4	Hindi	295	%
5	Arabic	280	%
6	Portuguese	205	%
7	Bengali	200	%
8	Russian	160	%
9	Japanese	125	%
10	Punjabi	95	%
11	German	92	%
12	Javanese	82	%
13	Wu	80	%
14	Malay	77	%
15	Telugu	76	%
16	Vietnamese	76	%
17	Korean	76	%
18	French	75	%
19	Marathi	73	%
20	Tamil	70	%
21	Urdu	66	%
22	Turkish	63	%
23	Italian	59	%
24	Yue	59	%
25	Thai	56	%
26	Gujarati	49	%
27	Jin	48	%
28	Southern Min	47	%
29	Persian	45	%
30	Polish	40	%
31	Pashto	39	%
32	Kannada	38	%
33	Xiang	38	%
34	Malayalam	38	%
35	Sundanese	38	%
36	Hausa	34	%
37	Odia	33	%
38	Burmese	33	%
39	Hakka	31	%
40	Ukrainian	30	%
41	Bhojpuri	29	%
42	Tagalog	28	%
43	Yoruba	28	%
44	Maithili	27	%
45	Uzbek	26	%
46	Sindhi	26	%
47	Amharic	25	%
48	Fula	24	%
49	Romanian	24	%
50	Oromo	24	%
51	Igbo	24	%
52	Azerbaijani	23	%
53	Awadhi	22	%
54	Gan	22	%
55	Cebuano	21	%
56	Dutch	21	%
57	Kurdish	21	%
58	Serbo-Croatian	19	%
59	Malagasy	18	%
60	Saraiki	17	%
61	Nepali	17	%
62	Sinhala	16	%
63	Chittagonian	16	%
64	Zhuang	16	%
65	Khmer	16	%
66	Turkmen	16	%
67	Assamese	15	%
68	Madurese	15	%
69	Somali	15	%
70	Marwari	14	%
71	Magahi	14	%
72	Haryanvi	14	%
73	Hungarian	13	%
74	Chhattisgarhi	12	%
75	Greek	12	%
76	Chewa	12	%
77	Deccan	11	%
78	Akan	11	%
79	Kazakh	11	%
80	Northern Min	10.9	%
81	Sylheti	10.7	%
82	Zulu	10.4	%
83	Czech	10.0	%
84	Kinyarwanda	9.8	%
85	Dhundhari	9.6	%
86	Haitian Creole	9.6	%
87	Eastern Min	9.5	%
88	Ilocano	9.1	%
89	Quechua	8.9	%
90	Kirundi	8.8	%
91	Swedish	8.7	%
92	Hmong	8.4	%
93	Shona	8.3	%
94	Uyghur	8.2	%
95	Hiligaynon/Ilonggo	8.2	%
96	Mossi	7.6	%
97	Xhosa	7.6	%
98	Belarusian	7.6	%
99	Balochi	7.6	%
100	Konkani	7.4	%
Total		5,610	%

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