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What are the top 200 most spoken languages?
For over 15 years, we've published a list of the largest languages in the world – often cited by top-tier publications. The Ethnologue 200 are the top 200 most spoken languages, accounting for most of the world's population.
What is the most spoken language?
We factor in both native and non-native speakers to determine the largest language in the world. Also included is our current list of the world's four most spoken languages.
How many languages are there in the world?
More than 7,000 languages are spoken today. We explore exactly how many there are, their geographic distribution, and compare endangered languages with the world's largest languages.

Explore the World
Click a country to learn about its languages:
Demographics
7.683 billion people
7,159 living languages
430 million deaf
87% literate
Global Language Vitality Count
Indigenous Language Vitality Count Bar chart showing vitality levels of indigenous languages.
1. Institutional
  485
2. Stable
  3481
3. Endangered
  3193
4. Extinct
  454
Details
This graph shows the profile of languages in the world with respect to their level of language vitality.
Institutional — The language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community.
Stable — The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
Endangered — It is no longer the norm that children learn and use this language.
Extinct - The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language.
These four summary levels have been derived by grouping levels in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which is the more fine-grained scale that Ethnologue uses to assess the status of every language in terms of development versus endangerment; see Language Status for a description of the levels of that scale. See also the pages on Development and Endangerment for more discussion.

How do we classify and measure the status of languages?
In similar fashion to the natural kingdom, where plant and animal species range from abundant to endangered, languages are also classified as stronger or weaker using different scales. One important dimension is language status, classified using the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale.
What is the Digital Language Divide?
In the era of the Internet and global communications, immeasurable amounts of digital information are being created, shared, and consumed. For billions of people, this means instant access to health information, education, career opportunities, news, social interaction, entertainment, communication tools, and digital content of every conceivable kind.
Welcome to the 28th edition
As our contribution to the celebration of International Mother Language Day, we are pleased to announce the release of the 28th edition of Ethnologue.

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