List of languages by number of native speakers in India - wikipedia List of languages by number of native speakers in India States and union territories of India by the most commonly spoken ( L1 ) first language. India is home to several hundred languages. Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the Indo - Aryan branch of Indo - European ( c. 74 % ), the Dravidian ( c. 20.61 % ), the Austroasiatic ( Munda ) ( c. 1.2 % ), or the Sino - Tibetan ( c. 0.6 % ), with some languages of the Himalayas still unclassified. The SIL Ethnologue lists 415 living languages for India. Contents 1 Overview 2 List of languages by number of native speakers 2.1 More than one million speakers 2.2 100,000 to one million speakers 3 List of mother tongues by number of speakers 4 Notes 5 See also 6 References 6.1 Notes 6.2 General references 7 External links Overview India has 23 constitutionally recognized official languages. Hindi and English are the official languages used by the Central Government. State governments use respective official languages. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in northern parts of India. The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of `` Hindi '' as a broad variety of `` Hindi languages ''. According to 2001 Census, 53.6 % of Indian population declared that they speak Hindi either as first or second language, in which 41 % of them have declared it as their native language or mother tongue. 12.6 % Indians declared that they can speak English as a second language. Thirteen languages account for more than 1 % of Indian population each, and between themselves for over 95 % ; all of them are `` scheduled languages of the constitution ''. Scheduled languages spoken by fewer than 1 % of Indians are Santali ( 0.63 % ), Kashmiri ( 0.54 % ), Nepali ( 0.28 % ), Sindhi ( 0.25 % ), Konkani ( 0.24 % ), Dogri ( 0.22 % ), Meitei ( 0.14 % ), Bodo ( 0.13 % ) and Sanskrit ( In the 2001 census of India, only 14,135 people reported Sanskrit as their native language ). The largest language that is not `` scheduled '' is Bhili ( 0.95 % ), followed by Gondi ( 0.27 % ), Khandeshi ( 0.21 % ), Tulu ( 0.17 % ) and Kurukh ( 0.10 % ). Indian population in 1991 exhibited 19.4 % of bilingualism and 7.2 % of trilingualism, so that the total percentage of `` native languages '' is at about 127 %. India has a Greenberg 's diversity index of 0.914, i.e. two people selected at random from the country will have different native languages in 91.4 % of cases. List of languages by number of native speakers Further information : List of languages by number of native speakers Ordered by number of speakers as first language. More than one million speakers The 2001 census recorded 29 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers ( 0.1 % of total population ). The languages in bold are scheduled languages ( the only scheduled language with less than 1 million native speakers is Sanskrit ). The first table is restricted to only speaking populations for scheduled languages. First, Second, and Third languages by number of speakers in India ( 2001 Census ) Language First language speakers First language speakers as a percentage of total population Second language speakers Third language speakers Total speakers Total speakers as a percentage of total population Hindi 422,048,642 41.03 98,207,180 31,160,696 551,416,518 53.60 Bengali 83,369,769 8.10 6,637,222 1,108,088 91,115,079 8.86 Telugu 74,002,856 7.19 9,723,626 1,266,019 84,992,501 8.26 Marathi 71,936,894 6.99 9,546,414 2,701,498 84,184,806 8.18 Tamil 60,793,814 5.91 4,992,253 956,335 66,742,402 6.49 Urdu 51,536,111 5.01 6,535,489 1,007,912 59,079,512 5.74 Kannada 37,924,011 3.69 11,455,287 1,396,428 50,775,726 4.94 Gujarati 46,091,617 4.48 3,476,355 703,989 50,271,961 4.89 Odia 33,017,446 3.21 3,272,151 319,525 36,609,122 3.56 Malayalam 33,066,392 3.21 499,188 195,885 33,761,465 3.28 English 226,449 0.02 86,125,221 38,993,066 125,344,736 12.18 Sanskrit 14,135 < 0.01 1,234,931 3,742,223 4,991,289 0.49 Table : Ordered by number of native speakers Rank Language 2001 census ( total population 1,028,610,328 ) 1991 census ( total population 838,583,988 ) Encarta 2007 estimate ( worldwide speakers ) Speakers Percentage Speakers Percentage Speakers Hindi 422,048,642 41.1 % 329,518,087 39.29 % 366 M Bengali 83,369,769 8.11 % 69,595,738 8.30 % 207 M Telugu 74,002,856 7.19 % 66,017,615 7.87 % 69.7 M Marathi 71,936,894 6.99 % 62,481,681 7.45 % 68.0 M 5 Tamil 60,793,814 5.91 % 53,006,368 6.32 % 66.0 M 6 Urdu 51,536,111 5.01 % 43,406,932 5.18 % 60.3 M 7 Gujarati 46,091,617 4.48 % 40,673,814 4.85 % 46.1 M 8 Kannada 37,924,011 3.69 % 32,753,676 3.91 % 35.3 M 9 Malayalam 33,066,392 3.21 % 30,377,176 3.62 % 35.7 M 10 Odia 33,017,446 3.21 % 28,061,313 3.35 % 32.3 M 11 Punjabi 29,102,477 2.83 % 23,378,744 2.79 % 57.1 M 12 Assamese 13,168,484 1.28 % 13,079,696 1.56 % 15.4 M 13 Maithili 12,179,122 1.18 % 7,766,921 0.926 % 24.2 M 14 Bhili / Bhilodi 9,582,957 0.93 % 15 Santali 6,469,600 0.63 % 5,216,325 0.622 % 16 Kashmiri 5,527,698 0.54 % 17 Nepali 2,871,749 0.28 % 2,076,645 0.248 % 16.1 M 18 Gondi 2,713,790 0.26 % 19 Sindhi 2,535,485 0.25 % 2,122,848 0.253 % 19.7 M 20 Konkani 2,489,015 0.24 % 1,760,607 0.210 % 21 Dogri 2,282,589 0.22 % 22 Khandeshi 2,075,258 0.21 % 23 Kurukh 1,751,489 0.17 % 24 Tulu 1,722,768 0.17 % 25 Meitei ( Manipuri ) 1,466,705 0.14 % 1,270,216 0.151 % 26 Bodo 1,350,478 0.13 % 1,221,881 0.146 % 27 Khasi 1,128,575 0.11 % 28 Mundari 1,061,352 0.103 % 29 Ho 1,042,724 0.101 % * Excludes figures of Paomata, Mao - Maram and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur for 2001. * * The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the total population of India excluding the population of Mao - Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati district of Manipur due to cancellation of census results. 100,000 to one million speakers Rank Language 2001 census Speakers Percentage 30 Kui 916,222 0.089 % 31 Garo 889,479 0.086 % 32 Tripuri 854,023 0.083 % 33 Lushai / Mizo 674,756 0.066 % 34 Halabi 593,443 0.058 % 35 Korku 574,481 0.056 % 36 Miri / Mishing 551,224 0.054 % 37 Munda 469,357 0.046 % 38 Karbi / Mikir 419,534 0.041 % 39 Koya 362,070 0.035 % 40 Ao 261,387 0.025 % 41 Savara 252,519 0.025 % 42 Konyak 248,109 0.024 % 43 Kharia 239,608 0.023 % 44 English 226,449 0.022 % 45 Malto 224,926 0.022 % 46 Nissi / Dafla 211,485 0.021 % 47 Adi 198,462 0.019 % 48 Thado 190,595 0.019 % 49 Lotha 170,001 0.017 % 50 Coorgi / Kodagu 166,187 0.016 % 51 Rabha 164,770 0.016 % 52 Tangkhul 142,035 0.014 % 53 Kisan 141,088 0.014 % 54 Angami 132,225 0.013 % 55 Phom 122,508 0.012 % 56 Kolami 121,855 0.012 % 57 Khond / Kondh 118,597 0.012 % 58 Dimasa 111,961 0.011 % 59 Ladakhi 104,618 0.010 % 60 Sema 103,529 0.010 % List of mother tongues by number of speakers Each of the languages of the 2001 census subsumes one or more mother tongues. Speaker numbers are available for these mother tongues and they are also included in the speaker numbers for their respective language. The following table lists those mother tongues that have more than one million speakers. Per the General Notes from the 2001 census : `` Mother tongue is the language spoken in childhood by the person 's mother to the person. If the mother died in infancy, the language mainly spoken in the person 's home in childhood will be the mother tongue. '' Mother tongues with more than one million speakers Rank Mother tongue 2001 census Included in language Speakers Percentage Hindi 257,919,635 25.071 % Bengali 82,462,437 8.016 % Telugu 73,817,148 7.176 % Marathi 71,701,478 6.970 % 5 Tamil 60,655,813 5.896 % 6 Urdu 51,533,954 5.009 % 7 Gujarati 45,715,654 4.444 % 8 Kannada 37,742,232 3.669 % 9 Bhojpuri 33,099,497 3.217 % Hindi 10 Malayalam 33,015,420 3.209 % 11 Odia 32,110,482 3.121 % 12 Punjabi 28,152,794 2.737 % 13 Rajasthani 18,355,613 1.784 % Hindi 14 Magadhi / Magahi 13,978,565 1.359 % Hindi 15 Chhattisgarhi 13,260,186 1.289 % Hindi 16 Assamese 12,778,735 1.242 % 17 Maithili 12,178,673 1.184 % 18 Haryanvi 7,997,192 0.777 % Hindi 19 Marwari 7,936,183 0.771 % Hindi 20 Santali 5,943,679 0.578 % 21 Malvi 5,565,167 0.541 % Hindi 22 Kashmiri 5,362,349 0.521 % 23 Mewari 5,091,697 0.495 % Hindi 24 Khortha / Khotta 4,725,927 0.459 % Hindi 25 Bhili / Bhilodi 3,313,481 0.322 % 26 Bundeli / Bundelkhan 3,072,147 0.299 % Hindi 27 Nepali 2,867,922 0.279 % 28 Bagheli 2,865,011 0.278 % Hindi 29 Pahari 2,832,825 0.275 % Hindi 30 Lamani / Lambadi 2,707,562 0.263 % Hindi 31 Awadhi 2,529,308 0.246 % Hindi 32 Wagdi 2,510,811 0.244 % Bhili 33 Gondi 2,505,247 0.244 % 34 Harauti 2,462,867 0.239 % Hindi 35 Konkani 2,420,140 0.235 % 36 Dogri 2,282,547 0.222 % 37 Garhwali 2,267,314 0.220 % Hindi 38 Nimadi 2,148,146 0.209 % Hindi 39 Sadan / Sadri 2,044,776 0.199 % Hindi 40 Kumaoni 2,003,783 0.195 % Hindi 41 Dhundhari 1,871,130 0.182 % Hindi 42 Ahirani 1,865,813 0.181 % Khandeshi 43 Kurukh / Oraon 1,737,044 0.169 % 44 Tulu 1,720,422 0.167 % 45 Sindhi 1,694,061 0.165 % 46 Meitei 1,466,497 0.143 % 47 Surgujia 1,458,533 0.142 % Hindi 48 Bagri Rajasthani 1,434,123 0.139 % Hindi 49 Bodo / Boro 1,330,775 0.129 % 50 Banjari 1,259,821 0.122 % Hindi 51 Nagpuria 1,242,586 0.121 % Hindi 52 Surjapuri 1,217,019 0.118 % Hindi 53 Kangri 1,122,843 0.109 % Hindi 54 Mundari 1,046,951 0.102 % 55 Ho 1,037,987 0.101 % Notes Jump up ^ Some languages may be over - or under - represented as the census data used is at the state - level. For example, while Urdu has 52 million speakers ( 2001 ), in no state is it a majority language. Jump up ^ includes Western Hindi apart from Urdu, Eastern Hindi, Bihari languages except for Maithili, the Rajasthani languages, and the Pahari languages apart from Nepali and ( in 2001 ) Dogri, whether or not the included varieties were reported as `` Hindi '' or under their individual names. See also Languages with official status in India List of endangered languages in India References Notes Jump up ^ `` Report of the Commissioner for linguistic minorities : 50th report ( July 2012 to June 2013 ) '' ( PDF ). Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Retrieved 17 September 2016. Jump up ^ `` How a Bihari lost his mother tongue to Hindi ''. Jump up ^ `` These four charts break down India 's complex relationship with Hindi ''. Jump up ^ `` Nearly 60 % of Indians speak a language other than Hindi ''. Jump up ^ 2001 census data Jump up ^ In 1991, there were 90,000,000 `` users '' of English. ( Census of India Indian Census Archived 2006 - 12 - 23 at the Wayback Machine., Issue 10, 2003, pp. 8 -- 10, ( Feature : Languages of West Bengal in Census and Surveys, Bilingualism and Trilingualism ) and Tropf, Herbert S. 2004. India and its Languages. Siemens AG, Munich. ) Jump up ^ `` COMPARATIVE SPEAKERS ' STRENGTH OF SCHEDULED LANGUAGES - 1971, 1981, 1991 AND 2001 ''. censusindia.gov. New Delhi, India : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 2007 - 11 - 30. Retrieved 2015 - 10 - 13. Jump up ^ Paul, Lewis M. ; Simons, Gary F. ; Fennig, Charles D. Fennig, eds. ( 2015 ). `` Summary by country ''. Ethnologue : Languages of the World ( Eighteenth ed. ). SIL International. Jump up ^ ORGI. `` Census of India : Comparative speaker 's strength of Scheduled Languages - 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 ''. ^ Jump up to : S, Rukmini. `` Sanskrit and English : there 's no competition ''. ^ Jump up to : http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/popu1.aspx Jump up ^ `` Indiaspeak : English is our 2nd language - Times of India ''. ^ Jump up to : Abstract of speakers ' strength of languages and mother tongues -- 2000, Census of India, 2001 Jump up ^ Comparative Speaker 's Strength of Scheduled Languages - 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001, Census of India, 1991 Jump up ^ `` Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People -- Table -- MSN Encarta ''. Archived from the original on 2007 - 12 - 03. Jump up ^ includes Western Hindi apart from Urdu, Eastern Hindi, Bihari languages except for Maithili, the Rajasthani languages, and the Pahari languages apart from Nepali and ( in 2001 ) Dogri, whether or not the included varieties were reported as `` Hindi '' or under their individual names. Jump up ^ different from Kui language Jump up ^ Census Data 2001 General Notes General references Data table of Census of India, 2001 Language Maps from Central Institute of Indian Languages Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker 's strength -- 2001 Comparative ranking of scheduled languages in descending order of speaker 's strength - 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 Census data on Languages External links `` Major Indian Languages ''. Discover India. Archived from the original on 1 January 2007. Ethnologue report Central Institute of Indian Languages Languages of India Official languages Union - level Hindi English 8th schedule to the Constitution of India Assamese Bengali Bodo Dogri Gujarati Hindi Kannada Kashmiri Konkani Maithili Malayalam Meitei ( Manipuri ) Marathi Nepali Odia Punjabi Sanskrit Sindhi Santali Tamil Telugu Urdu State - level only Garo Gurung Khasi Kokborok Lepcha Limbu Mangar Mizo Newari Rai Sherpa Sikkimese Sunwar Tamang Major unofficial languages Over 1 million speakers Angika Awadhi Bagheli Bagri Bajjika Bhili Bhojpuri Bundeli Chhattisgarhi Dhundhari Garhwali Gondi Harauti Haryanvi Ho Kangri Khandeshi Khortha Kumaoni Kurukh Lambadi Magahi Malvi Marwari Mewari Mundari Nimadi Rajasthani Sadri Surjapuri Tulu Wagdi Varhadi 100,000 -- 1 million speakers Adi Angami Ao Dimasa Halbi Karbi Kharia Kodava Kolami Konyak Korku Koya Kui Kuvi Ladakhi Lotha Malto Mishing Nishi Phom Rabha Sema Sora Tangkhul Thadou Major languages of South Asia Main articles Languages of India list by number of speakers scheduled Languages of Pakistan Languages of Bangladesh Languages of Bhutan Languages of the Maldives Languages of Nepal Languages of Sri Lanka Contemporary languages Austronesian Sri Lankan Creole Malay Dravidian Brahui Jeseri Kannada Malayalam Tamil Telugu Tulu Indo - Aryan Angika Assamese Bhojpuri Bengali Chakma Chittagonian Dhivehi Dogri Gujarati Hindi Hindko Kashmiri Konkani Kumaoni Magahi Mahal Maithili Marathi Nepali Odia Punjabi Sanskrit Saraiki Sindhi Sinhala Sylheti Rajasthani language Urdu Iranian Balochi Pashto Wakhi Isolates Great Andamanese Burushaski Nihali Kusunda Mon -- Khmer Khasi Nicobarese Munda Ho Korku Mundari Santali Sora Ongan Önge Jarawa Tibeto - Burman Ao Bodo Dzongkha Garo Meithei Mizo Nepal Bhasa Sikkimese Tenyidie Tibetan Tripuri European influence English Indian English Pakistani English Sri Lankan English French Portuguese Scripts Historical Indus ( Undeciphered ) Brahmi ( Abugida ) Kharosthi Brahmic Devanagari Bengali Gujarati Gurmukhī Malayalam Kannada Odia Ranjana Sinhala Tamil Telugu European Latin alphabet Arabic Arwi Nastaʿlīq Shahmukhi Arabi Malayalam Language activism Hela Havula Bengali Language Movement Sanskrit revival Pure Tamil movement Nepal Bhasa movement Punjabi Language Movement Urdu movement Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers_in_India&oldid=807449175 '' Categories : Languages of India Indian culture - related lists Lists of languages Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Languages Cymraeg 한국어 हिन्दी 日本 語 ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Русский தமிழ் ไทย اردو 吴语 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 28 October 2017, at 01 : 05. 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Question: which is the largest speaking language in india
Answer: Hindi