The Most Spoken Languages In The World

Chinese (1.1 billion speakers)

Number of native speakers: 897 million
Number of non-native speakers: 193 million
Total speakers: 1.09 billion
Name in the language itself: 普通话 (Putonghua)
Language family: Sino-Tibetan
Related to: Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese

2. English (983 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 371 million
Number of non-native speakers: 611 million
Total number of speakers: 983 million
Language-family: Germanic, a sub-family of Indo-European.
Related to: German, Dutch, Frisian

3. Hindustani (544 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 329 million
Number of non-natives: 215 million
Total number of speakers: 544 million
Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European.
Related to: Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

4. Spanish (527 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 436 million
Number of non-native speakers: 91 million
Total number of speakers: 527 million
Language family: Romance, a sub-family of Indo-European.
Related to: French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian

5. Arabic (422 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 290 million
Number of non-natives: 132 million
Total number of speakers: 422 million
Language family: Semitic, a sub-family of Afro-Asiatic.
Related to: Hebrew, Amharic, and Aramaic.

6. Malay (281 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 77 million
Number of non-natives: 204 million
Total number of speakers: 281 million
Language family: Austronesian
Related to: Javanese, Tagalog

7. Russian (267 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 153 million
Number of non-natives: 113 million
Total number of speakers: 267 million
Language family: East Slavic, a sub-family of Indo-European
Related to: Ukrainian, Belarusian

8. Bengali (261 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 242 million
Number of non-natives: 19 million
Total number of speakers: 261 million
Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European.
Related to: Hindustani, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

9. Portuguese (229 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 218 million
Number of non-natives: 11 million
Total number of speakers: 229 million
Language family: Romance, a sub-branch of Indo-European.
Related to: French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian

10. French (229 million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 76 million
Number of non-natives: 153 million
Total number of speakers: 229 million
Language family: Romance, a sub-branch of Indo-European.
Related to: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian

11. Hausa (150 Million speakers)

Number of native speakers: 85 million
Number of non-natives: 65 million
Total number of speakers: 150 million
Language family: Chadic, a sub-family of Afroasiatic
Related to: Ron, Bole. More distantly: Arabic, Somali

12. Punjabi

Number of native speakers: 148 million
Number of non-natives: negligible
Total number of speakers: 148 million
Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European.
Related to: Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali

13. Telugu

Number of native speakers: 80 million
Number of non-natives: 12 million
Total number of speakers: 92 million
Language family: Dravidian
Related to: Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada

14. Javanese

Number of native speakers: 84 million
Number of non-natives: negligible
Total number of speakers: 84 million
Language family: Austronesian
Related to: Malay, Tagalog