page_title: Tagalog language
section_title: Geographic distribution
hierarchical_section_title: Tagalog language / Geographic distribution
caption_attribution_description: English: A Tagalog-language landslide and rockslide-prone area sign at Indang, Cavite. Tagalog sign translates as "Danger! Landslide and rockslide-prone area."
context_page_description: Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority. Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of two official languages alongside English.
  Tagalog is closely related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages, Ilocano, the Visayan languages, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan, and more distantly to other Austronesian languages, such as the Formosan languages of Taiwan, Malay, Hawaiian, Māori, and Malagasy.
context_section_description: According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, as of 2014 there were 100 million people living in the Philippines, where the vast majority have some basic level of understanding of the language. The Tagalog homeland, Katagalugan, covers roughly much of the central to southern parts of the island of Luzon—particularly in Aurora, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Manila, Nueva Ecija, Quezon, Rizal, and Zambales. Tagalog is also spoken natively by inhabitants living on the islands of Marinduque and Mindoro, as well as Palawan to a lesser extent. Significant minorities are found in the other Central Luzon provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac, Ambos Camarines in Bicol Region, and the Cordillera city of Baguio. Tagalog is also the predominant language of Cotabato City in Mindanao, making it the only place outside of Luzon with a native Tagalog speaking majority.
  At the 2000 Philippines Census, it is spoken by approximately 57.3 million Filipinos, 96% of the household population who were able to attend school; slightly over 22 million, or 28% of the total Philippine population, speak it as a native language.
  The following regions and provinces of the Philippines are majority Tagalog-speaking (from north to south):
  Central Luzon Region
  Aurora
  Bataan
  Bulacan
  Nueva Ecija
  Pampanga
  Tarlac
  Zambales
  Metro Manila (National Capital Region)
  Southern Luzon (Calabarzon and Mimaropa)
  Batangas
  Cavite
  Laguna
  Rizal
  Quezon
  Marinduque
  Occidental Mindoro
  Oriental Mindoro
  Romblon
  Palawan
  Bicol Region (While the Bikol languages have traditionally been the majority languages in the following provinces, heavy Tagalog influence and migration has resulted in its significant presence in these provinces and in many communities Tagalog is now the majority language.)
  Camarines Norte
  Camarines Sur
  Bangsamoro
  Maguindanao (While Maguindanao has traditionally been the majority language of the province, Tagalog is now the main language of "mother tongue" primary education in the province and is the majority language in the regional center of Cotabato City.)
  Tagalog speakers are also found in other parts of the Philippines and through its standardized form of Filipino, the language serves the national lingua franca of the country.
  Tagalog also serves as the common language among Overseas Filipinos, though its use overseas is usually limited to communication between Filipino ethnic groups. The largest concentration of Tagalog speakers outside the Philippines is found in the United States, where in 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau reported (based on data collected in 2011) that it was the fourth most-spoken non-English language at home with almost 1.6 million speakers, behind Spanish, French (including Patois, Cajun, Creole), and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined). In urban areas, Tagalog ranked as the third most spoken non-English language, behind Spanish and Chinese varieties but ahead of French. Other countries with significant concentrations of overseas Filipinos and Tagalog speakers include Saudi Arabia, Canada, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Malaysia.
caption: A landslide and rockslide-prone area sign at Indang, Cavite.
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