The 25 Most Popular Languages In The World
Most Popular Languages In The World
The late Bob Marley is quoted as having once said “one good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain” and today we’ll be looking at the most important aspect of music which is language.
Language is something that is of national heritage to any given country and our focus shall be on which the most popular languages in the world are.
Apart from music, language happens to be what holds the entire planet together in that it helps people to interact and understand each other and this in turn makes it possible for people from different ethnic backgrounds to work together so as to move the world forward in terms of global development and as you’ll get to see, the economies that drive the world are well represented in the list of the 25 most popular languages in the world.
So How Did I Come Up With The Most Popular Languages In The World?
I decide to use Wikipedia to come up with “my list” of the most popular languages in the world and they in turn used the estimates from Nationalencyklopedin.
The data is based on 2007 estimates and although every effort was made to be as precise as possible regarding which the most popular
languages in the world are, some countries do not record the language spoken when conducting their censuses hence lists that seek to compile a list of the most popular languages in the world heavily rely on estimates.
I believe I’ve said enough so let’s now get to see which the 25 most popular languages in the world are.
The 25 Most Popular Languages In The World
Language |
Native Speakers In Millions |
% Of World Population |
Countries Where Spoken |
| Mandarin | 955 | 14.1% | China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore |
| Spanish | 407 | 5.85% | Hispanic America, Spain, United States, Equatorial Guinea |
| English (Most Popular International Language) | 359 | 5.52% | Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, Singapore |
| Hindi | 311 | 4.46% | India |
| Arabic | 293 | 4.23% | North Africa, Western Asia (Middle East) |
| Portuguese | 216 | 3.08% | Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal |
| Bengali | 206 | 3.05% | Bangladesh, West Bengal (India), Tripura (India), Assam (India) |
| Russian | 154 | 2.42% | Russia, former Republics of the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Israel |
| Japanese | 126 | 1.92% | Japan |
| Punjabi | 102 | 1.44% | Punjab region (Pakistan, India) |
| German | 89 | 1.39% | Austria, Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy), Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, South Tirol (in Italy) |
| Javanese | 82 | 1.25% | Java (Indonesia) |
| Wu | 80 | 1.20% | Zhejiang, Shanghai, southern Jiangsu (eastern China) |
| Malay/Indonesian | 77 | 1.16% | Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore |
| Telugu | 76 | 1.15% | Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry (India) |
| Vietnamese | 76 | 1.14% | Vietnam |
| Korean | 76 | 1.14% | North Korea, South Korea |
| French | 74 | 1.12% | Belgium (Wallonia, Brussels), Canada (particularly Quebec, New Brunswick and Eastern parts of Ontario), France, Switzerland, Francophone Africa, French Caribbean, French Polynesia, various islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. |
| Marathi | 73 | 1.10% | Maharashtra (India) |
| Tamil | 70 | 1.06% | Tamil Nadu, Karnataka (India), Puducherry (India), Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius |
| Urdu | 66 | 0.99% | Pakistan, India |
| Persian | 65 | 0.99% | Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan |
| Turkish | 63 | 0.95% | Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria |
| Italian | 59 | 0.90% | Italy, Switzerland, San Marino |
| Cantonese | 59 | 0.89% | Canton Province, southern Guangxi (southern China), Hong Kong, Macau |
NB: The earth’s population is about 7.1 billion as of 2013 so you can add that figure when computing the percentage for the above most popular languages in the world.
Apologies are in order for all the geeks whose official language “Geek”, hasn’t been recorded among the 25 most popular languages in the world.
(Most Popular Languages In The World: Image Above Courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net)
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