Worldwide billions of people converse with each other using over 7000 different languages. It’s not easy to find up to date and accurate  statistics so think of this list as a “rough guide” to the most spoken languages in the world. The top 31 most spoken languages in the world are listed below. The totals include native and second language speakers.

English tops the list of most spoken languages with around 1,268 million speakers. However the Chinese family of languages consists of thirteen different groups including; Chinese Mandarin (which includes Standard Chinese), Wu Chinese (which includes Shanghainese), Yue Chinese (which includes Cantonese) totalling over 1,287 million. In this wider context Chinese is the most spoken language in the world.

Languages	Total speakers (millions)	Language family	Most spoken languages in countries
English	1,268	Indo-European	Countries where English is an official language or primary language: Australia New Zealand United Kingdom (UK) United States of America (USA) Antigua & Barbuda Bahamas Barbados Belize Cook Islands Dominica Grenada Guyana Jamaica Liberia Papua New Guinea Saint Kitts & Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent & Grenadines Sierra Leone Trinidad & Tobago. Countries where English is spoken as a minority language: Botswana Burundi Cameroon Canada (not in Quebec, Nunavut and northern New Brunswick) Eswatini Fiji (used as a “lingua franca” trade language) Gambia Ghana (used as a “lingua franca” trade language) India (used officially and for education) Ireland (co-official language with Irish) Kenya (used in business and education) Kiribati Lesotho Malawi Malta (used officially and for education and business) Marshall Islands Mauritius Micronesia Namibia (used as a “lingua franca” trade language) Nauru (minority language but widely spoken) Nigeria (used as a “lingua franca” trade language) Niue Pakistan (minority language but used officially and for education) Palau Philippines (co-official language with Filipi) Rwanda (used officially and for education) Samoa Seychelles Singapore (used as a “lingua franca” trade language, widely spoken, used in education) Solomon Islands South Africa (used as a “lingua franca” for trade and used officially in education) South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Tonga Tuvalu Uganda (used officially for education) Vanuatu Zambia Zimbabwe (used as a “lingua franca” trade language). Tops the list of the most spoken languages in the world.
Mandarin Chinese (includes Standard Chinese)	1,120	Sino-Tibetan	China (as Putonghua) Taiwan (as Guoyu) Singapore (as Huayu) Countries where Mandarin Chinese is spoken as a minority language: Myanmar (Wa State) United States of America (Minority language. Chinese is the third most spoken language in the USA). Mandarin is second in the list of the most spoken languages in the world and tops the list of the most spoken first languages in the world.
Hindi	637.3	Indo-European	India. Hindu is third in the list of the most spoken languages in the world.
Spanish	537.9	Indo-European	Spain Argentina Bolivia Canary Islands Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Puerto Rico (USA Territory) Uruguay United States of America. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the USA. Venezuela. Spanish is widely spoken across Central & South America, apart from Brazil, and fourth in the list of the most spoken languages in the world.
French	276.6	Indo-European	Countries where French is an official language or primary language: France Belgium Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Comoros Congo / Congo Republic Djibouti DR Congo / Democratic Republic of the Congo Equatorial Guinea Gabon Guinea Haiti Côte d’Ivoire / Ivory Coast Luxembourg Madagascar Mali Monaco Niger Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Switzerland Togo Vanuatu. French Territories where French is an official language or primary language: Aosta Valley Clipperton French Polynesia French Southern Territories New Caledonia Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Wallis & Futuna. Fifth in the list of the most spoken languages in the world.
Standard Arabic	274	Afro-Asiatic	Algeria Bahrain Chad Djibouti Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Morocco Saudi Arabia Somalia United Arab Emirates (UAE) Yemen. Arabic is one of the 10 most spoken languages in the world and the most widely spoken language across the Middle East, Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.
Bengali	265.2	Indo-European	Bangladesh India (West Bengal, Tripura, Assam’s Barak Valley and Jharkhand).
Russian	258	Indo-European	Countries where Russian is an official language or primary language: Russia Abkhazia (disputed state, co-official) Belarus Kazakhstan (co-official) Kyrgyzstan (co-official) Moldova (Gagauzia (co-official), Transnistria (disputed state. co-official) South Ossetia (disputed state) Tajikistan Turkmenistan (inter-ethnic communication) Countries where Russian is spoken as a minority language: Armenia Azerbaijan China Cyprus Czechia / Czech Republic Israel Latvia Moldova Mongolia North Korea Poland Romania (regional and minority) Slovakia Ukraine (disputed Republic of Crimea) Uzbekistan (inter-ethnic communication).
Portuguese	252.2	Indo-European	Countries and territories where Portuguese is an official language: Portugal Brazil (most spoken language) Angola (minority and second language) Cape Verde / Cabo Verde (mostly spoken as a second language) East Timor / Timor-Leste (minority language) Equatorial Guinea (minority language) Guinea-Bissau (minority language) Macau China SAR (minority language) Mozambique (minority language) São Tomé & Príncipe (most spoken language).
Indonesian	199	Austronesian	Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia) is a standardised variety of Malay and tenth in the list of most spoken languages in the world. Indonesian is mostly spoken in: Indonesia East Timor / Timor-Leste.
Urdu	170.6	Indo-European	India (as Hindi, Urdu) Pakistan (as Urdu).
German	131.6	Indo-European	Countries and territories where German is an official language: Germany Austria (most spoken language) Belgium (minority language spoken in German communities) Liechtenstein (most spoken language) Luxembourg (co-official language with French and Luxembourgish) Switzerland (co-official language at federal level with French, Italian and Romansh).
Japanese	126.4	Japonic	Japan Brazil Palau United States of America. Japanese is a minority language in the USA.
Swahili	98.5	Niger–Congo	Countries and territories where Swahili is an official language: DR Congo / Democratic Republic of the Congo Kenya Rwanda Tanzania Uganda. Countries where Swahili is spoken as a minority language: Burundi Mozambique.
Marathi	95.3	Indo-European	India (Primarily spoken in Maharashtra, Goa and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (DNHDD) union territory).
Telugu	93	Dravidian	India (primarily in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Yanam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands).
Turkish	85.2	Turkic	Turkey Northern Cyprus (disputed territory) Cyprus. Countries where Turkish is spoken as a minority language: Bosnia & Herzegovina Greece Iraq Kosovo North Macedonia Romania.
Yue Chinese (including Cantonese)	84.9	Sino-Tibetan	China, Hong Kong as Chinese China, Macau as Chinese.
Tamil	83.8	Dravidian	Sri Lanka Singapore India (Tamil Nadu, Puducherry) Countries where Tamil is spoken as a minority language: Malaysia Mauritius South Africa
Western Punjabi / Lahnda	82.8	Indo-European	Pakistan (spoken is Punjab, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions).
Wu Chinese (including Shanghainese)	81.8	Sino-Tibetan	China (Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shanghai, Zhejiang and SAR Hong Kong and Macau Overseas Chinese communities worldwide with origins from Shanghai, Jiangsu and/or Zhejiang.
Korean	79.4	Koreanic	North Korea South Korea China (Yanbian Prefecture and Changbai County). Countries where Korean is spoken as a minority language: Russia (Primorsky Krai).
Vietnamese	77	Austroasiatic	Vietnam Countries where Vietnamese is spoken as a minority language: Czechia / Czech Republic Cambodia (Kampong Luong, floating village) France Germany United States of America (USA).
Hausa	72.7	Afro-Asiatic	Niger Nigeria Ghana. Countries where Hausa is spoken as a minority language: Benin Cameroon Côte d’Ivoire / Ivory Coast Libya Togo.
Javanese	68.3	Austronesian	Indonesia (Java island).
Egyptian Arabic	67.8	Afro-Asiatic	Egypt.
Italian	67.7	Indo-European	Italy San Marino Switzerland Vatican City / Holy See. Countries where Italian is spoken as a minority language: Slovenia (Slovenian Istria region) Croatia (Istria County).
Thai	60.7	Kra–Dai	Thailand Countries where Thai is spoken as a minority language: Cambodia (Koh Kong province) Malaysia (Kedah, Kelantan states) Myanmar (Tanintharyi region).
Gujarati	60.7	Indo-European	India (Primarily spoken in Gujarat and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (DNHDD) union territory).
Kannada	56.5	Dravidian	India (Karnataka state).
Persian	55	Indo-European	Iran Afghanistan (as Dari) Tajikistan (as Tajik).