Top 10 most spoken languages in 2025: 5 Indian languages among global 20

TRENDING | Top 10 most linguistically diverse countries worldwide: Where does India rank?

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:

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

India has about 453 living languages, however, Hindi has been India’s predominant mother tongue over the decades in India. (Source: Census of India data)