Most Spoken Languages WorldWide (1900-2023)

This video shows the most spoken languages in the world, between the years 1900 and 2023.
It is difficult to define what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example, Chinese and Arabic are sometimes considered to be single languages, but each includes several mutually unintelligible varieties and so they are sometimes considered language families instead. Conversely, colloquial registers of Hindi and Urdu are almost completely mutually intelligible, and are sometimes classified as one language, Hindustani, instead of two separate languages. Such rankings should be used with caution, because it is not possible to devise a coherent set of linguistic criteria for distinguishing languages in a dialect continuum.
There is no single criterion for how much knowledge is sufficient to be counted as a second-language speaker. For example, English has about 450 million native speakers but, depending on the criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as 2 billion speakers.
There are also difficulties in obtaining reliable counts of speakers, which vary over time because of population change and language shift. In some areas, there is no reliable census data, the data is not current, or the census may not record languages spoken, or record them ambiguously. Sometimes speaker populations are exaggerated for political reasons, or speakers of minority languages may be under-reported in favor of a national language.
Global Stats - Hight Quality Visualization
Music: Scott Buckley - Life Is.

[@Rationalific]

This was surprising, but the biggest upswing with English occurred as the internet became popular around the world, and was exacerbated by smartphones also becoming commonly available. By the way, I particularly like the pace as well as the music when set to 2x speed!

[@alimurtaza6318]

Especially in the developing world.

[@jasonb111222]

I appreciated the combo flags in this

[@coinbowl]

Combo flags look confusing though

[@anarkitty0]

As a swiss I have to agree, it's a huge plus for two languages xD

[@cpj93070]

I don't especially for English should just be the Union Jack or the St Georges flag to be honest.

[@carlito6038]

@@cpj93070why? weird take

[@jout738]

That rapid growth in start of 2022 with english speakers was just unbeliveble. Is it even more kids learning english in China and India? With this pace I do think english could maybe reach nearly 3 billion speakers by the end of this century, when it solidifys its status as the international language. Some delusional people twenty years ago thought chinese will be the most spoken language in the future, but in these statistics how many people speak chinese has bit decreased in past few years, while it has increased a lot how many people speak english in past few years, so with this trajectory I cant myself think that chinese will be the main international language of the world and I get why, because chinese is so much harder to learn and write to other people around the world with the chinese alphabetics.

[@EmilianaKowalewska]

This is a very good dataset confirming some key events. German started to decline in 1930-40s as a consequence of WW2, but recovered and keeps rising to this day. With Spanish and French, it is among the most spoken languages here in Europe. Chinese is falling since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, most likely because of anti-China sentiments globally. It may fall behind India (Hindi) in the next couple of decades. We will see... As far as English is concerned, it will stay at the top, because it's the prime language in social media and internet, computer science (e.g. programming languages), technological jargon, global business and trade, etc.

[@davidfigueiredo8159]

india is prob gonna surpass china in population this year

[@Bianchi77]

Nice video, thanks for sharing it with us, well done :)

[@NostalgiCrazy]

Crazy how the internet and then social media changed the game for everything. I wonder what technology in the next 10 years will do...

[@Minniekitty]

For a suggestion in the next video, @Global Stats, it would be cool to see what is the most translated website in the whole world. The reason for this is because you are a global states channel, and you also share the most popular languages spoken around the world as seen in this video.

[@jacktam7673]

English is de facto global lingua franca. That is unshakable fact ! 🇺🇸 🇬🇧

[@Superpooper-2020]

Only 5 countries speak English this video is missleading

[@Tyler_Hutchinson]

​@@Superpooper-2020lie

[@Superpooper-2020]

@@Tyler_Hutchinson cry

[@Tyler_Hutchinson]

@@Superpooper-2020 Why would I cry, english is growing fastest. Even you are speaking english. That is a win for me😁🇬🇧🇬🇧🇺🇸

[@ALYTALyrics]

@@Superpooper-2020 I mean, you're speaking english right now so it is clearly the lingua Franca.

[@daniellowell2730]

The advent of the internet is the cause of English taking off?

[@NostalgiCrazy]

Precisely! You can tell when the 2000s came, it took off when the internet really globalized. Then of course in the past decade when social media took over.

[@fuongnam]

It is difficult to define what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example, Chinese and Arabic are sometimes considered to be single languages, but each includes several mutually unintelligible varieties and so they are sometimes considered language families instead. Conversely, colloquial registers of Hindi and Urdu are almost completely mutually intelligible, and are sometimes classified as one language, Hindustani, instead of two separate languages. Such rankings should be used with caution, because it is not possible to devise a coherent set of linguistic criteria for distinguishing languages in a dialect continuum. There is no single criterion for how much knowledge is sufficient to be counted as a second-language speaker. For example, English has about 450 million native speakers but, depending on the criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as 2 billion speakers. There are also difficulties in obtaining reliable counts of speakers, which vary over time because of population change and language shift. In some areas, there is no reliable census data, the data is not current, or the census may not record languages spoken, or record them ambiguously. Sometimes speaker populations are exaggerated for political reasons, or speakers of minority languages may be under-reported in favor of a national language.

[@eteone1]

Español y portugués se entienden muy bien. También podría estar sumado.

[@deutschegeschichte4972]

Dialects are still part of a language, whether they are mutually intelligible or not.

[@carlito6038]

@@eteone1no para nada. viste que la diferencia entre hindí y urdu es mucho más grande, el castellano y portugués son bien diferentes aunque obvio que comparten un montón

[@mbathroom1]

i am surprised at just how fast english is growing recently

[@vloggingwithsam4811]

me too

[@VictoriaWolczynska]

It's the memes...THEIR TAKING IN ENGLISH!

[@duartevader2709]

Probably because a lot of people are learning it as a second language (including me) and also because of former British colonies with big growing populations like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania etc

[@alimurtaza6318]

​@@duartevader2709that is actually really true I am from Pakistan and here english is the second language which is taught in schools and first is urdu ofcourse.

[@adrian-4767]

@@alimurtaza6318 can Pakistanis speak English natively? what percentage of the population?

[@rizaradri316]

Interesting that you put Indonesian here. But, if you put Malay speakers in this list the number will jump to 300 million people. This is because Malay and Indonesian is very similar but quite different at the same time. For us Indonesian, our national language is a separate language from Malay, while Malays speakers (mainly from Malaysia) tends to say that Indonesian is merely a standardized dialect of Malay. This different views created a controversy over which variant of Malay that will be used as second official language of ASEAN. Indonesia of course says Indonesian should be the one to be used, while Malaysia says their version of Malay (along with Bruneian and Singaporean Malay) should be the second official language of ASEAN.

[@terusanzues6571]

Indonesian language is Malay language stolen by Indonesian and then named it "bahasa Indonesia".

[@J_eunyoung]

​@@terusanzues6571 dicuri? Pemilik bhs melayu tertua justru indonesia. Bagaimana dg malaysia,? Bukti tertua mana yg bisa kalian tunjukkan.? Bahasa indonesia berisi 23.000 kosa kata melayu saat di buat, sekarang 110.000 kosa kata. Asal kamu tau justru bahasa melayu malaysia banyak mencuri kosa kata indonesia dg dalih MABBIM. 62.000 kosa kata indonesia dicuri melayu . Suruh profesor anda berdebat dengan profesor indonesia, maka profesor kalian akan dipermalukan.

[@terusanzues6571]

@@J_eunyoung Malay = Melayu -> Malaysia (Negara orang melayu). Bahasa Indonesia berasal dari Bahasa Melayu. Bahasa Melayu adalah bahasanya milik orang Melayu, sedangkan orang Melayu adalah orang2 Malaysia. Kesimpulan = Bahasa Indonesia adalah bahasa yg diaku2 miliknya yg sebenarnya bahasa orang Malaysia. Mending kamu pakai bahasa Jawa aja sana!!!!!!!

[@natalinoamaral434]

Portuguese 🇵🇹🇧🇷🇦🇴🇬🇼🇸🇹🇹🇱🇬🇶🇲🇿💪❤️🔥 Viva Lusofonias

[@waleedalanzi4450]

Most spoken languages ​​in the world from 1900 to 2100❤

[@cursedkeene]

What website did he/she use to make this? Its not flourish tho.

[@MattUK36]

This is obviously L1+L2. You should do a video with L1 only

[@100kGaming13]

Can you do a subscriber evolution of The ACE Family (Most Subscribed Family Channel on KZbin)

[@Reboot__]

Look at the numbers, how they suddenly go down in some countries since 2021. I would say this is the "safe and effective"-thing.

[@eizyaws]

Wow! By 2014 English just took off! Technology to thank of course 😁

[@fastfootedone]

7:25 what took you so long?! (mis-leading list actually --- most people who speak the other languages also speak English)

[@DanA.-jo4sg]

Just look at the last 10 years. English added 400 million new speakers. Wow.

[@DanA.-jo4sg]

Just the last year alone, 2022-2023, it added over 100 million? How is that possible?

[@shawnv123]

@@DanA.-jo4sgbecause the world is controlled by anglos and the anglos have been controlling this world since nineteen forty five

[@MattUK36]

🇪🇸😍👌🏻

[@JcDizon]

Hmm how come Arabic appears to be on decline but some Arabic speaking countries are increasing in population rapidly? And Indonesian is portrayed as being on steep decline in the video?

[@Rationalific]

Interesting catch. I hadn't noticed that. It looks like a lot of that is just in that last few seconds of the video, so maybe the most recent data points were taken from a different source, and that skewed the numbers at the very end...?

[@tallesnattan8321]

🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷❤❤❤

[@HindiGamer100]

Hindi is the third most spoken language in the world. Hindi language is official in Bharat ( India ), Fiji and UAE . Far and Far Hindi language official in Nepal. Hindi language is spoken in Bharat , Fiji , Nepal, America, Russia, Uganda, Japan,Arabic countries , Pakistan, Bangladesh, Britain etc. Hindi is organised official language in UNO but it takes sometime. Jai shree Ram

[@joachimmahoudeaux8619]

as a french born in the 70's I had to learn 2 languages + my native one. As I've choosen english and spanish, means that I can be understood by 2.2 billions people in the world. So before doing anything french bashing related, bear in mind most of the french people will reply in a language that will be widely understood.

[@jonlima9897]

Im fluent in portuguese, spanish and english and I really want to learn french, How difficult would It be?

[@Official_Fredbear]

Hey global stats please make a video for most popular websites (1996-2023)

[@ilyasrana4545]

You should have added urdu in hindi,because both are same languages,

[@HindiGamer100]

2915000000 अरब [ हिन्दी + उर्दू ]

[@ChileElBolita]

i feel bad cuz spanish speakers(im spanish speaker) want to learn english, but english speakers are not satisfied with learning other language like spanish

[@michaelgourvitch5323]

This depends a lot on the educational system in certain countries. Historically speaking the imperialistic mindset has been brought over to the education in the UK and the US, meaning they mostly expect others to learn English instead of encouraging learning about other languages and cultures

[@StarkEditz97-101]

Yes because everything is English these days, go to most of the countries in the world right now, and the signs will be in the language of that country and in english. Anyway. Im from the UK and here it is compulsory to learn one other language in school, mostlt spanish.

[@SunsetSecondary]

im from america but i really wanna learn spanish

[@Rationalific]

​@@michaelgourvitch5323 It's not really imperialistic that much. @StarkEditz97-69 noted that English is everywhere, and that's pretty much true. If there are bilingual signs (and the country is not bilingual), then it's almost a given that the second language of the signs will be in English. And even when a Dane and an Italian meet to talk while in Korea, they'd probably speak in English (assuming they don't know Korean fluently). So English is the first language to many, and a second language to even more. I guess you could say that countries use their own language primarily, and the world lingua-franca (or "lingua-angla?") of English secondarily. English countries are the same. They use English primarily, and their second language is also the world lingua-franca...which happens to also be English... With that said, I am an American, and even when I go to a bank, the ATM asks if I want English or Spanish. When I call an automated service, it says, "Para continuar en Espanol, oprima dos." (or something similar). Every "Wet Floor" sign also says "Piso Mojado". If anything, Spanish is America's second language. (We also get French written along with English on many products, due to its inclusion for Canadian speakers.) Personally, I am interested in Japan and have an intermediate level ability in Japanese and am focusing on that. But if I wanted to get to a decent level in a language besides Japanese (and English), I'd probably attempt to do so with Spanish.

[@nikhilnagboth8425]

In the US (at least where I live), it is a high school requirement to study a foreign language (usually Spanish, French, and Chinese are offered at my school, but you can learn another language at an authorized location and count that) for at least three years. Also, most of the southwestern part of the US uses Spanish as a second language on road signs, phone calls, etc. Where I live, there are a lot of places where those who are not in high school can also learn Spanish. A lot of young people in my area generally try to learn another language if their mother tongue is English.

[@dangerousvillain7278]

This is language as native language (L1)? 'Cause if it's as L1+L2 Indonesian are all of its citizen 270M (in Indonesia only)

[@user-io6zp7kh1j]

Speakers of the Arabic language 500 million Mother tongue 300 million Use the Arabic language as a second language People who understand the Arabic language 800 million

[@MrGoatMan3895]

English is the msot spokemon language, but not as a first language (or at least thats what i read)

[@shaheedwako6750]

Okay

[@moulicos8334]

🇵🇹💪🏻

[@HandsomeSquidward22]

all of you commenting in english 💀

[@deutschegeschichte4972]

Ich kann in Deutsch :)

[@jacktam7673]

@@deutschegeschichte4972 ,,auf Deutsch” oder ,,Ich kann Deutsch sprechen” 🤡

[@Superpooper-2020]

Source: trust me bro

[@md.manirhossainkhan6833]

There are more than 3 crore Bengalis in Pakistan

[@SandboxRaptor]

i wont lie dont mix up flags for a language spainish is spainish english is english not mexican or american so goes for all

[@eteone1]

Español y portugués son casi lo mismo.

[@el_perro_feliz6647]

Claro que no xd. El acento es totalmente diferente.

[@lusitanus.]

Claro que não.

[@carlito6038]

hablás los dos entonces? cosas sencillas si son iguales pero antes de decir algo así hay que saber como hablar los dos, y vos claramente no ya que decís que son casi lo mismo

[@basharatali9946]

Wrong stats urdu is not only spoken in Pakistan but over 100 million speaker in India also

[@metallurgico]

we are too much

[@bunny-dg8vk]

I speak and am fluent in English, Hindi and Bengali and can fully understand Urdu lmao

[@longknoll8065]

What's with the huge surge in English speakers?

[@olivers-g4021]

The internet

[@thirstofficer2332]

Indian Scammers on the Internet.

[@Superpooper-2020]

English is not the most spoken language it's Mandarin , Spanish second , English is third

[@Rationalific]

@@Superpooper-2020 This includes all speakers, even non-native ones.

[@Superpooper-2020]

@@Rationalific non native speakers don't even speak English in their daily life.

[@gowthamkrishna6283]

*Telugu

[@broadlover69]

Bangla shown wrong numbers It's 300 million or more

[@pisky5067]

Same with Arabic. 280 mln is MSA arabic but if you count Egyptian dialect, levantine, sudanese, gulf etc. it would be about 400 mln (not including maghrebi group because its more far away)

[@pchapmanus99]

Hi

[@overlord398]

German 🇩🇪🇨🇭🇦🇹💪

[@deutschegeschichte4972]

Die beste Sprache.

[@buikhoa4567]

Where are Viet Nam

[@JATTHUNNEAA]

Where is punjabi bro?

[@guddumagicboy]

Urdu is more popular and widely spoken than Bengali . 🤔

[@Alcatraz_2.0]

First

[@Alcatraz_2.0]

@OxTail fish the wood didn’t ask

[@ivanovichdelfin8797]

Pronto Estados Unidos representará 2 idiomas (el español y el inglés)

[@dennis771]

Lol funny man

[@ivanovichdelfin8797]

@@dennis771 Se dice "Chico sincero"

[@dennis771]

@@ivanovichdelfin8797 What you just write makes no sense. The US don’t have a first language to have a 2nd. What the US have is a unifying language and hundreds of languages from around the world. Its incredible you have this grand vision of language conquering when you should be focus on your economy & innovation

[@ivanovichdelfin8797]

@@dennis771 Yo puedo estar enfocado en varias cosas, querido. Y si a partir de 2050-2075 Estados Unidos va a ser el primer país con más hablantes de español, pues es obvio que acabará representando en algunos vídeos la bandera del idioma español. Un país puede ser bilingüe perfectamente y habrá una parte de la población que preferirá utilizar un idioma u otro. Es el caso de Suiza, Bélgica, Bielorrusia, Canadá y muchos otros países. ¿Conquista del idioma?¡Pero de qué conquista hablas!, el español lleva representando Estados Unidos desde que este se independizó, el idioma español además ya se habló en su día en la mayoría del territorio que ahora es de Estados Unidos por un gran tiempo. El idioma español se desprestigió en Estados Unidos seguramente por su relación diplomática con México y España, por eso decayó en picado su número de hablantes, pero ahora la situación es diferente.

[@nikhilnagboth8425]

@@dennis771 You're right. The US doesn't even have an official language. English is primarily used, but not the official language.

[@Moribus_Artibus]

But why do so many non-Anglo people adopt the American mode of speaking English as opposed to the British?

[@deutschegeschichte4972]

America has a larger population than England, therefore in general it is more likely to have more speakers. However tbh I like the British English better, and I am an American lollololol.

[@Pluto_is_a_planet273]

Most of these people learn it from the internet and tv. The us is far more dominant in that sphere

[@luvtotk5986]

cause british english sounds terrible and there are less speakers. Media and internet also since america has been a lot more dominant in that

[@mattonthemoon225]

It’s widely spoken by media but in general it’s also easier than British.

[@mattonthemoon225]

​@@Renso2727 and this is good, at least for us neo-latin non-portuguese speakers :) Brazilian version is easier to understand and also to speak... European one seems a mix between slavic and french.

[@VictoriaWolczynska]

French flag looks like ai was messing with it

[@no3084]

I think Arabic is more than that It is about 486 m

[@deutschegeschichte4972]

Modern Standard Arabic is about 270m. Even if you count the dialects its still only about 360m.

[@Paallenjr12]

If you pause it at 7:35 you get the Ukrainian flag

[@ahmetyilmaz7495]

Turkish ? There are more than 300 million people speak Turkish in the world. You just promoting english. bravo

[@JcDizon]

The Turkish language spoken in Turkey and the Turkic language family don't mean the same thing.

[@deutschegeschichte4972]

No? You might be referring to the language family which is Turkish languages. But just because a language is Turkic doesn't make it Turkish. That would be like saying Swedish and German are the same thing just because Swedish is a Germanic language.

[@bunniemunch123]

Take off usa flag

[@Tyler_Hutchinson]

Cope

[@deutschegeschichte4972]

no

[@zidane8452]

Cry