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What are the top 200 most spoken languages?
For over 15 years, we've published a list of the largest languages in the world – often cited by top-tier publications. The Ethnologue 200 are the top 200 most spoken languages, accounting for most of the world's population.
What is the most spoken language?
We factor in both native and non-native speakers to determine the largest language in the world. Also included is our current list of the world's four most spoken languages.
How many languages are there in the world?
More than 7,000 languages are spoken today. We explore exactly how many there are, their geographic distribution, and compare endangered languages with the world's largest languages.
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Click a country to learn about its languages: Demographics
7.683 billionpeople
7,159living languages
430 milliondeaf
87%literate
Global Language Vitality Count
Indigenous Language Vitality CountBar chart showing vitality levels of indigenous languages.Details
This graph shows the profile of languages in the world with respect to their level of language vitality.
- Institutional — The language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community.
- Stable — The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
- Endangered — It is no longer the norm that children learn and use this language.
- Extinct - The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language.
These four summary levels have been derived by grouping levels in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which is the more fine-grained scale that Ethnologue uses to assess the status of every language in terms of development versus endangerment; seeLanguage Status for a description of the levels of that scale. See also the pages onDevelopment andEndangerment for more discussion.
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