List of languages by number of native speakers - wikipedia List of languages by number of native speakers For languages by total speakers, see List of languages by total number of speakers. Current distribution of human language families This article ranks human languages by their number of native speakers. However, all such rankings should be used with caution. It is difficult to define the difference between a language and a dialect, or between a language and a macrolanguage ; for example, Chinese is sometimes considered a single language and sometimes a macrolanguage whose many varieties are all independent languages. Any division of speakers among languages is the result of the classification of these speakers. Often such classifications are based on political or cultural factors. Although such classifications are not entirely arbitrary, it is not possible to devise a coherent linguistic set of criteria for the boundaries between languages. For a list of languages with the smallest numbers of native speakers, see lists of endangered languages. Contents 1 Top languages by population 2 Charts and graphs 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links Top languages by population The following table contains the top 100 languages by estimated number of native speakers in the 2007 edition of the Swedish encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin. As census methods in different countries vary to a considerable extent, and given that some countries do not record language in their censuses, any list of languages by native speakers, or total speakers, is effectively based on estimates. Updated estimates from 2010 are also provided. The top eleven languages have additional figures from the 2010 edition of the Nationalencyklopedin. Numbers above 95 million are rounded off to the nearest 5 million. Top languages by population per Nationalencyklopedin Rank Language Native speakers in millions 2007 ( 2010 ) Percentage of world population ( 2007 ) Mandarin ( entire branch ) 935 ( 955 ) 14.1 % Spanish 390 ( 405 ) 5.85 % English 365 ( 360 ) 5.52 % Hindi 295 ( 310 ) 4.46 % 5 Arabic 280 ( 295 ) 4.23 % 6 Portuguese 205 ( 215 ) 3.08 % 7 Bengali ( Bangla ) 200 ( 205 ) 3.05 % 8 Russian 160 ( 155 ) 2.42 % 9 Japanese 125 ( 125 ) 1.92 % 10 Punjabi 95 ( 100 ) 1.44 % 11 German 92 ( 95 ) 1.39 % 12 Javanese 82 1.25 % 13 Wu ( e.g. Shanghainese ) 80 1.20 % 14 Malay ( inc. Malaysian and Indonesian ) 77 1.16 % 15 Telugu 76 1.15 % 16 Vietnamese 76 1.14 % 17 Korean 76 1.14 % 18 French 75 1.12 % 19 Marathi 73 1.10 % 20 Tamil 70 1.06 % 21 Urdu 66 0.99 % 22 Turkish 63 0.95 % 23 Italian 59 0.90 % 24 Yue ( incl. Cantonese ) 59 0.89 % 25 Thai 56 0.85 % 26 Gujarati 49 0.74 % 27 Jin 48 0.72 % 28 Southern Min ( incl. Hokkien and Teochew ) 47 0.71 % 29 Persian 45 0.68 % 30 Polish 40 0.61 % 31 Pashto 39 0.58 % 32 Kannada 38 0.58 % 33 Xiang ( Hunanese ) 38 0.58 % 34 Malayalam 38 0.57 % 35 Sundanese 38 0.57 % 36 Hausa 34 0.52 % 37 Odia ( Oriya ) 33 0.50 % 38 Burmese 33 0.50 % 39 Hakka 31 0.46 % 40 Ukrainian 30 0.46 % 41 Bhojpuri 29 0.43 % 42 Tagalog ( Filipino ) 28 0.42 % 43 Yoruba 28 0.42 % 44 Maithili 27 0.41 % 45 Uzbek 26 0.39 % 46 Sindhi 26 0.39 % 47 Amharic 25 0.37 % 48 Fula 24 0.37 % 49 Romanian 24 0.37 % 50 Oromo 24 0.36 % 51 Igbo 24 0.36 % 52 Azerbaijani 23 0.34 % 53 Awadhi 22 0.33 % 54 Gan Chinese 22 0.33 % 55 Cebuano ( Visayan ) 21 0.32 % 56 Dutch 21 0.32 % 57 Kurdish 21 0.31 % 58 Serbo - Croatian 19 0.28 % 59 Malagasy 18 0.28 % 60 Saraiki 17 0.26 % 61 Nepali 17 0.25 % 62 Sinhalese 16 0.25 % 63 Chittagonian 16 0.24 % 64 Zhuang 16 0.24 % 65 Khmer 16 0.24 % 66 Turkmen 16 0.24 % 67 Assamese 15 0.23 % 68 Madurese 15 0.23 % 69 Somali 15 0.22 % 70 Marwari 14 0.21 % 71 Magahi 14 0.21 % 72 Haryanvi 14 0.21 % 73 Hungarian 13 0.19 % 74 Chhattisgarhi 12 0.19 % 75 Greek 12 0.18 % 76 Chewa 12 0.17 % 77 Deccan 11 0.17 % 78 Akan 11 0.17 % 79 Kazakh 11 0.17 % 80 Northern Min 10.9 0.16 % 81 Sylheti 10.7 0.16 % 82 Zulu 10.4 0.16 % 83 Czech 10.0 0.15 % 84 Kinyarwanda 9.8 0.15 % 85 Dhundhari 9.6 0.15 % 86 Haitian Creole 9.6 0.15 % 87 Eastern Min ( inc. Fuzhounese ) 9.5 0.14 % 88 Ilocano 9.1 0.14 % 89 Quechua 8.9 0.13 % 90 Kirundi 8.8 0.13 % 91 Swedish 8.7 0.13 % 92 Hmong 8.4 0.13 % 93 Shona 8.3 0.13 % 94 Uyghur 8.2 0.12 % 95 Hiligaynon / Ilonggo ( Visayan ) 8.2 0.12 % 96 Mossi 7.6 0.11 % 97 Xhosa 7.6 0.11 % 98 Belarusian 7.6 0.11 % 99 Balochi 7.6 0.11 % 100 Konkani 7.4 0.11 % Total 5,610 85 % Charts and graphs Bubble chart of languages by proportion of native speakers worldwide Languages with at least 50 million first - language speakers, millions ( according to : Ethnologue ) See also Global language system Linguistic demography Linguistic Diversity Index List of ISO 639 - 3 codes List of languages by total number of speakers List of languages by number of native speakers in Africa List of languages by number of native speakers in India ( uses a different definition of Hindi ) List of sign languages by number of native signers Lists of languages World language Languages used on the Internet Notes Jump up ^ Refers to only Modern Standard Hindi here. The Census of India defines Hindi on a loose and broad basis. It does not include the entire Hindustani language, only the Hindi register of it. In addition to Standard Hindi, it incorporates a set of other Indo - Aryan languages written in Devanagari script including Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Haryanvi, Dhundhari etc. under Hindi group which have more than 422 million native speakers as of 2001. However, the census also acknowledges Standard Hindi, the above mentioned languages and others as separate mother tongues of the Hindi language and provides individual figures for all these languages. ^ Jump up to : This is only a fraction of total speakers ; others are counted under `` Hindi '' as they regard their language a Hindi dialect. Jump up ^ Numbers may also be counted in Punjabi above Jump up ^ Only half this many use Belarusian as their home language. References Jump up ^ Paolillo, John C. ; Das, Anupam ( 31 March 2006 ). `` Evaluating language statistics : the Ethnologue and beyond '' ( PDF ). UNESCO Institute of Statistics. pp. 3 -- 5. Retrieved 8 October 2015. ^ Jump up to : Mikael Parkvall, `` Världens 100 största språk 2007 '' ( The World 's 100 Largest Languages in 2007 ), in Nationalencyklopedin. Asterisks mark the 2010 estimates for the top dozen languages. ^ Jump up to : Abstract of speakers ' strength of languages and mother tongues -- 2000, Census of India, 2001 Jump up ^ Summary by language size External links The Ethnologue 's most recent list of languages by number of speakers Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People ( Archived 2009 - 10 - 31 ) -- Encarta list, based on data from Ethnologue, but some figures ( e.g. for Arabic ) widely vary from it Map of World Languages. Download of MP3 audio files in 1600 language combinations. Countries and languages lists hide Countries By languages Spoken Countries by spoken languages Official Countries by the number of recognized official languages Arabic Chinese Dutch / Afrikaans English French German Malay Portuguese Romanian Russian Spanish Tamil Endonyms Countries and capitals in native languages Exonyms Country names in various languages A -- C D -- I J -- P Q -- Z Languages of the European Union hide Languages By continent Africa Americas North South Asia East South Europe Oceania By country Official languages by state List of languages without official status Countries by the number of recognized official languages Languages by the number of countries in which they are recognized as an official language By population By number of native speakers By number of total speakers Languages in censuses By family Language families Language - based geopolitical organizations Arab League ( Arabic ) Dutch Language Union ( Dutch ) English Speaking Union Francophonie ( French ) Community of Portuguese Language Countries ( Portuguese ) Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa ( Portuguese ) Latin Union ( Romance ) Hispanidad ( Spanish ) Turkic Council ( Turkic ) International Organization of Turkic Culture ( Turkic ) See also Lists of languages Category : Languages Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers&oldid=849224483 '' Categories : Lists of languages Hidden categories : Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages All accuracy disputes Articles with disputed statements from January 2017 Use dmy dates from October 2010 Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Languages Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Gaeilge Galego 한국어 हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Ирон Italiano ಕನ್ನಡ Къарачай - малкъар Қазақша Лезги Latviešu Lietuvių Magyar Македонски मराठी Bahasa Melayu 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча Papiamentu Polski Português Română Русский Shqip Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska தமிழ் Татарча / tatarça ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt 吴语 Yorùbá 粵語 中文 52 more Edit links This page was last edited on 7 July 2018, at 12 : 38 ( UTC ). 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Question: which language has the largest number of speakers in the world
Answer: Mandarin (entire branch)