What are the world’s most spoken languages?

The numbers below are gathered from the 2023 edition of Ethnologue, which is considered one of the most reliable language databases available. While you should treat the number of speakers as a rough estimate, you can be confident that the ranking of each language is accurate.

The ranking of the most popular languages also changes slightly when comparing native speakers to total usage. We’ve provided both lists to help paint a clearer picture of the world’s languages.