The world's population speaks almost 7,000 languages. However, only a few dozen of them have official status in certain countries and are of global importance. For example, the UN has only 6 official languages: English, Arabic, Russian, French, Chinese and Spanish.
Today we have compiled for you Top 15 most spoken languages in the world... The main criterion for assessing the prevalence was the number of people who consider this or that language as their native language.
15. Urdu
Native to 60.6 million people.
The language related to Hindi belongs to the Indo-European group and originated in the 13th century. Urdu is spoken by about 7 percent of the Pakistani population and the population of several Indian states, as well as a few ethnic groups in 23 countries.
14. Italian
Native to 61.7 million people.
The language is official in Italy, Switzerland, the Vatican and San Marino. About 2% of websites on the Internet use Italian.
13. Tamil
Native to 65.7 million people.
The language of the population of southern India, parts of Singapore and Sri Lanka. Tamil originated more than 2,300 years ago and is the source of many of the classic literary works of the Oriental literature.
12. Korean
Native to 66.3 million people.
The language is the official language in North and South Korea and is spoken by nationalities in 33 countries around the world.
11. French
Native to 67.8 million people.
The language is official in France, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Monaco and Luxembourg. The International Organization for Cooperation of the Francophone Countries Francophonie unites 56 states.
10. German
Native to 90.3 million people.
The language is official in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Belgium. German is the second most popular language on the Internet, accounting for 6.5% of websites.
9. Japanese
Native to 122 million people.
Despite the fact that Japanese is the official language of only one state, it is used by peoples of 25 different countries in Asia. The importance of the Japanese language is also increased by the fact that Japan is the fourth largest power in the world in terms of GDP.
8. Russian
Native to 144 million people.
The Russian language is used for communication by people in 33 countries of the world, including 7 of them the language has the official status. 4.8% of sites on the Internet use Russian.
7. Portuguese
Native to 178 million people.
Colonization contributed to the spread of the native language for the population of small Portugal. Portuguese is the second most popular language in Latin America. It is also official in a number of African countries, for example, in Mozambique and Angola.
6. Bengali
Native to 181 million people.
The Indo-European language, which originated in the X-XII centuries, is official in the Republic of Bangladesh and is widely used in India.
5. Hindi
Native to 182 million people.
This ancient language is the most widespread in India and is enshrined in the country's constitution as an official one along with 20 other languages.
4. Arabic
Native to 221 million people.
The language has official status in Egypt, Israel, Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Senegal and many other countries.
3. Spanish
Native to 329 million people.
The language is official in Spain, many Latin American countries and Equatorial Guinea. About 4.5% of websites on the Internet use Spanish.
2. English
Native to 560 million people.
One of the most widely spoken languages in the world is recognized as an official language in 59 countries. Almost 57% of the websites on the World Wide Web are in English. Interestingly, about 70% of the words in the language are borrowed.
1. Chinese
Native to 1213 million people.
The most spoken language in the world is official in China, Taiwan and Singapore. 4.5% of Internet websites are in Chinese. There are 10 dialectical groups in Chinese, and the dialects differ so much that it is sometimes impossible for residents of different regions of China to understand each other.