Top 10 most spoken languages globally in 2025: The world has increasingly become interconnected and multilingual, yet more than half of the world population communicates in just 23 major languages, the World Economic Forum (WEF) highlights. According to recent research from Ethnologue, English is the most widely spoken language in the world in 2025. It is the native and second language of 1.53 billion individuals across 188 countries. Mandarin Chinese, the official language of China, is considered the largest language in the world when counting only first-language (native) speakers; it has 1.18 billion speakers, making it the second-most widely spoken language in the world in 2025. Spanish, the official language of Spain and 20 other countries is the fourth most spoken language in 2025, with 609.1 million speakers. Indonesian, the official national language in Indonesia, has notably surpassed Urdu to become the 10th most widely spoken language worldwide, with approximately 252.4 million speakers this year. Top 10 most spoken languages in the world, as of 2025: Rank Language Number of Speakers 1 English 1.5B 2 Mandarin Chinese 1.2B 3 Hindi 609.1M 4 Spanish 558.5M 5 Standard Arabic 334.8M 6 French 311.9M 7 Bengali 284.3M 8 Portuguese 266.6M 9 Russian 253.4M 10 Indonesian 252.4M Source: Ethnologue Please Note: This list does not rank macrolanguages (groupings of related but different language variations) but rather individual languages. This method solely represents a uniform way to record specific languages; it is not meant to elevate or denigrate any language or community. Where do Indian languages rank globally in 2025? India, renowned for its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, has five widely spoken languages - Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Marathi, and Telugu - worldwide in 2025. Rank Language Total Speakers Spoken In 3 Hindi 609.1M Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Delhi 7 Bengali 284.3M West Bengal, Tripura, Assam | Official Language of Bangladesh 11 Urdu 246.0M Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Delhi 16 Marathi 99.3M Maharashtra, Goa 18 Telugu 95.8M Andhra Pradesh, Telangana Source: Ethnologue
