Which languages are most widely spoken?

Joe Myers
Writer, Forum Agenda
Share:
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

English is the most widely spoken language worldwide, with 1.5 billion speakers. As we become increasingly connected, English has assumed a position of the dominant language of global communication, notably on the internet.

The following chart is based on data taken from Statista, and shows the numbers of total speakers and native speakers in millions.

1510B15-languages most speakers english chinese chart

Chinese, which is the official language in China, Taiwan and Singapore, is second on the list, with a total of 1.1 billion speakers. Hindi completes the top three, with 650 million speakers.

Both Chinese and Hindi surpass English in terms of native speakers, with native speakers accounting for only 25% of the total number of English speakers.

The list is completed by Spanish in fourth, with 420 million speakers; and French in fifth with 370 million.

Have you read?
How your language changes your worldview
The countries with the most spoken languages
Which languages do Europeans learn?

To keep up with the Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Author: Joe Myers is a Digital Content Producer at Formative Content. 

Image: A teacher points to Chinese characters on the board at Broadway Elementary School in California, April 11, 2011. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum