List of languages in "THE WORLD" by total number of speakers
| Language | Family | L1 speakers | L2 speakers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandarin | Sino-Tibetan, Chinese | 850 million (2000) | 180 million in China (no date) | One of the six official languages of the United Nations. All varieties of Chinese: 1200 million (2000) |
| English | Indo-European, Germanic | 335 million (2003–2012) | 505 million (no date) | One of the six official languages of the United Nations. |
| Spanish | Indo-European, Romance | 415 million (1995–2012) | 15 million in Spain & France (2006–2012) | One of the six official languages of the United Nations. |
| Hindi | Indo-European, Indo-Aryan,Hindustani | 260 million (2001) | 120 million in India (1999) | (spurious number: includes partial figures of ca. 100 million native speakers from many Hindi languages; indistinguishable from Urdu) |
| Bengali | Indo-European, Indo-Aryan | 190 million (2001) | 140 million in Bangladesh (no date) | |
| Portuguese | Indo-European, Romance | 200 million (1998–2005), possibly not counting conflicting, undated claim of 40% of Angola | 6 million in Mozambique and 20% of Angola (undated) | |
| Russian | Indo-European, Slavic | 170 million (2002) | 5 million in Baltic countries (2012) | One of the six official languages of the United Nations |
| Urdu | Indo-European, Indo-Aryan,Hindustani | 64 million (1998–2001) | 94 million in Pakistan (1999) | (indistinguishable from Hindustani Hindi) |
| Indonesian | Austronesian,Malayo-Polynesian | 23 million (2000) | 140 million in Indonesia (no date) | same language as Malay |
| Japanese | Japonic | 122 million (1985) | 1 million in Japan (no date) | |
| German | Indo-European,Germanic | 78 million (2012) | 8 million in Germany (no date) | |
| Javanese | Austronesian,Malayo-Polynesian | 84 million (2000) | NA | |
| Telugu | Dravidian | 74 million (2001) | 5 million in India (no date) | |
| Wu (Shanghainese) | Sino-Tibetan,Chinese | 77 million (1984) | NA | |
| Korean | language isolate | 77 million (2008–2010) | NA | |
| Tamil | Dravidian | 69 million (2001–2006) | 8 million in India (no date) | |
| French | Indo-European,Romance | 75 million (1987–2012) | 27 million UK, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg (2012), 2 million Morocco (1997), 0.4 million Haiti (undated), 20% Lebanon (undated) | One of the six official languages of the United Nations. |
| Marathi | Indo-European,Indo-Aryan | 72 million (2001) | 3 million in India (no date) | |
| Turkish | Turkic, Oghuz | 71 million (2006) | 0.4 million in Turkey (2006) | |
| Vietnamese | Austroasiatic, Viet–Muong | 68 million (1999) | NA | |
| Italian | Indo-European,Romance | 64 million (1977–2012) | Figure includes Italian bilinguals who do not use standard Italian as their main language, and who may account for nearly half the population in Italy | |
| Western Panjabi | Indo-European, Indo-Aryan | 63 million (2000) | NA | the Ethnologue boundary between Western andEastern Punjabi is spurious |
| Yue (Cantonese) | Sino-Tibetan,Chinese | 62 million (1984–2006) | NA | |
| Egyptian Arabic | Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Arabic | 54 million (2006) | NA | Used in media across the Arab world. 206 million native and 246 million L2 speakers of all varieties of Arabic (1999)[2] |
Arabic is only listed under Egyptian Arabic, as Arabic as a whole is not considered a single language. Other languages, such as Persian, Tagalog/Filipino, and Swahili, failed to make the list because they are divided into more than one language by Ethnologue. The distinction Ethnologue uses for Eastern and Western Punjabi is the national border, which does not correspond to the linguistic distinction. Indonesian and Malaysian are essentially the same language. Hindi and Urdu are as well; however, 100 million non-Hindustani speakers are included as "Hindi". Hausa has 25 million L1 total and 15 million L2 in Nigeria, and so at least approaches our limit of 50 million. Coastal Swahili has 15 million L1 in Tanzania (2012) and "probably over 80% of rural" Tanzania as L2, not counting Kenya or the 10 million L2 speakers of Congo Swahili (1999), so it also at least approaches our limit.
George H. J. Weber (1997)
In an article published in December 1997, with data collected from the early 1990s, Weber estimated primary and secondary speakers. However, only graphs were published, so numerical figures need to be measured, and readers are referred to his article.[3] Figures here have been rounded off to the nearest 10 million if over 20 million, and to the nearest 5 million if under.
George H. J. Weber's report on the number of total speakers of the top languages
| Language | Native speakers | Secondary speakers | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 1,100 million | 15 million | (not a significant difference) |
| English | 330 million | 150 million | 480 million |
| Spanish | 300 million | 15 million | 315 million |
| Russian | 155 million | 125 million | 280 million |
| French | 80 million | 190 million | 270 million |
| Hindi/Urdu | 250 million | ? | ? |
| Arabic | 200 million | 20 million | 220 million |
| Brazilian Portuguese | 160 million | 30 million | 190 million |
| Bengali | 180 million | ? | ? |
| Japanese | 110 million | 10 million | 120 million |
| Punjabi | 90 million | ? | ? |
| German | 100 million | 10 million | 110 million |
| Javanese | 80 million | ? | ? |
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