Top 25 Most Spoken Languages in the World in 2025

Languages not only help in communication but also help in cultural preservation and cognitive development. There are thousands of languages being spoken, and each is unique in a number of ways. Learning the top most spoken languages can connect you to new people and places you never imagined.

Paying attention to the most spoken languages can assist in your expansion strategy and leveling up globally. Beyond expected professional endeavors, speaking more than one language will create a pathway for new horizons and a way to develop better cultural understanding.

Let’s explore the top 25 most spoken languages in the world in 2025 and examine why they’re so widespread.

1- English

✷ Total Speakers: 1.5 billion
✷ Native Speakers: 380 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 1.120 billion

English is the most spoken language and is considered as default language used by various businesses belonging to different industry sectors.  It is a Germanic language and due to its popularity, it holds the status of an official language in 60+ countries.

Being a popular language, seeking authentic English translation becomes crucial. However, it is important to keep a check on tons of regional variations vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar to get the perfect translation.

Prominent Countries with English Speakers: United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ireland, etc.

2- Mandarin

✷ Total Speakers: 1.118 billion
✷ Native Speakers: 929 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 198.7 million

As we consider the total speakers count, Mandarin is the second most spoken language globally. However, it can be ranked as the most spoken language in the world if you count only native speakers. This is because a majority of China people speak in the Mandarin language.

Getting premium Mandarin translation is challenging as it is a set of dialects of the Chinese language. Mandarin uses a logographic writing system, and characters represent meanings rather than sounds. The spoken forms aren’t mutually intelligible, and thus you’ll find Mandarin has four distinct tones.

Prominent Countries With Mandarin Speakers: Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, etc.

3- Hindi

✷ Total Speakers: 602.2 million
✷ Native Speakers: 343.9 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 258.3 million

Hindi is one of the 22 official languages of India and is the most commonly spoken language in India.  Hindi belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the language and uses the Devanagari script. The script is phonetic, which means each character represents a specific sound.

It is highly easy to provide a accurate Hindi translation for various needs. However, it has different verb formations and pronouns based on the social relationship between speakers that needs to be considered carefully.

Prominent Countries With Hindi Speakers: India, Mauritius, Nepal, the United States, etc.

4- Spanish

✷ Total Speakers: 560 million
✷ Native Speakers: 485 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 75 million

Spanish is positioned as the second most widely spoken language globally when we consider only native speakers. It is also popularly known as Romance languages and holds the position of the third most used language on the internet.

Spain’s colonial expansion led to the spread of the Spanish language not only to America but also to Africa and Asia. Today, there are 21 Spanish-speaking countries in the world, and credible Spanish translation can help to operate well in major countries.

Prominent Countries With Spanish Speakers: Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela

5- French

✷ Total Speakers: 310 million
✷ Native Speakers: 81 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 266 million

French spread globally along with the French colonial empire. At present, there are 29 countries all where the French language holds a prominent position. French is highly considered the language of culture, and it is the third language with a huge number of non-native speakers.

There is growing demand for top-notch French translation as it holds official language status in the European Union, the United Nations, NATO, UNESCO, and the WHO.

Prominent Countries With French Speakers: France, Canada, Belgium,etc

6- Modern Arabic

✷ Total Speakers: 310 million

Modern Standard Arabic is the only language that doesn’t have native speakers. The Arabic language has different dialects, and its speakers grow up speaking a local dialect such as Mesopotamian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, etc.

It is commonly used in TV broadcasts, newspapers, academic and movies. So, getting prominent Arabic translation should not work well when you’re thinking of communicating with the local people.

Prominent Countries With Arabic Speakers: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Palestine, Qatar, Oman, etc.

7- Portuguese

✷ Total Speakers: 279 million
✷ Native Speakers: 276 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 3 million

Portuguese expanded during the European colonial period, and at present only 5% of Portuguese speakers live in Portugal.  Today, the language holds official status in South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

The Portuguese language has a rich vowel system and has nasal vowels with rhythmic sounds. Portuguese pronunciation varies significantly, and the productive Portuguese translation can help to go best with the variants.

Prominent Countries With Portuguese Speakers: Portugal, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, etc

8- Bengali

✷ Total Speakers: 265 million
✷ Native Speakers: 233 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 32 million

Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and is also spoken in India. It belongs to the Indo-European language family, just like Hindi. Also, it uses its own script and has a rich vowel system. Bengali language essence contributes to the language’s musical quality. When it comes to promoting Bengali art and literature around the world, a real Bengali translation is much needed.

Prominent Countries With Bengali Speakers: Bangladesh, India, etc.

9- Russian

✷ Total Speakers: 258.2 million
✷ Native Speakers: 154 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 104.1 million

Russia is the largest country in the world, and seeing the Russian language among the most widely spoken languages globally is not a surprise at all.  Russian is the official language of 4 countries but it is widely spoken in 19 major countries.

It is an East Slavic language and uses the Cyrillic alphabet. This makes it intimidating for new learners who are used to Latin. However, seeking reliable Russian translation can remove complexity and allow one to dive deeper into its literature.

Prominent Countries With Russian Speakers: Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, etc.

10- Urdu

✷ Total Speakers: 232 million
✷ Native Speakers: 71 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 161 million

Urdu holds official language status in Pakistan and is spoken in few states of India. The spoken part of Urdu is intelligible with Hindi however, Urdu is a modified Persian script whereas Hindi uses Sanskrit.

Urdu is also famous for its phonetic qualities which makes it one of the beautiful languages for poetry and literature. When you seek valuable Urdu translation, this elegant language brings in the essence of grace and formality.

Prominent Countries With Urdu Speakers: Pakistan and India

11- Indonesian

✷ Total Speakers: 200 million
✷ Native Speakers: 44 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 156 million

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia, but it’s not the native language of the majority of people. Indonesian is also known as a standardized form of Malay, and this makes both languages mutually intelligible. It uses the Latin alphabet and is known for its simple grammar structures, but lacks conjugations, grammatical gender, and plural forms.

Indonesian also absorbed many loanwords from Dutch, Sanskrit, Arabic, and English, which makes it easy to carry out error-free Indonesian translation with such language pairs.

Prominent Countries With Indonesian Speakers: Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines

12- Punjabi

✷ Total Speakers: 150 million
✷ Native Speakers: 90 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 80 million

Punjabi is a popular native language of the population in both India and Pakistan, particularly in the Punjab region. Punjabi plays a vital role in the cultural fabric and holds great importance for the Punjabi people. It is a significant language for Sikhs, Punjabi, as it is Gurmukhi script

As you get manual Punjabi translation, this helps to connect with the core Punjabi audience, with the hope of serving this large audience.

Prominent Countries With Punjabi Speakers: India, Canada, UK, US.

13- German

✷ Total Speakers: 134 million
✷ Native Speakers: 75 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 59 million

German is the official language of Germany and belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It’s known for its compound words that combine several words into one. Carrying out faultless German translation is challenging as there is a huge language complexity. The language follows logical rules and patterns, making it systematic.

Prominent Countries With German Speakers: Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, etc.

14- Japanese

✷ Total Speakers: 125.4 million
✷ Native Speakers: 125.3 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 0.1 million

Japanese is the first language that has entire speakers within one country as 99% of Japanese people speak Japanese. Japanese’s most distinctive features and has three writing systems: kanji, hiragana, and katakana.

While Japanese has no direct linguistic relatives however it borrows heavily from Chinese and English. So, when it is about high-value Japanese translation with English and Chinese, it becomes relatively easy.

Prominent Countries With Japanese Speakers: Japan, US, Brazil, Australia, etc.

15- Marathi

✷ Total Speakers: 99 million
✷ Native Speakers: 83 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 16 million

Marathi is the third most spoken language in India, and the majority of the Marathi speakers belong to the Indian state, Maharashtra. It is an Indo-Aryan language that has existed in its current form for about 1,300 years, making it one of the oldest languages in the world.

Marathi is known for having three genders and a complex case system. It has been seriously long and hard to say words such as “अभिजिंक्यपणामुळे” (abhijinkyapanāmuḷe), meaning “because of the quality of being undefeatable.” When you need reliable Marathi translation, it is best to get a translator who is a native speaker.

Prominent Countries With Marathi Speakers: India, US, Israel, etc.

16- Vietnamese

✷ Total Speakers: 97 million
✷ Native Speakers: 86 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 11 million

It is predominantly spoken in Vietnam, and it is also recognized as an official language in the Czech Republic. It used to rely on the Chinese script for writing, but it later replaced it with the Latin alphabet in the 20th century.

It’s also an incredibly efficient language, as most words are just one syllable long. So, you need to hire a professional Vietnamese translation agency to get the accurate translation as per the dialect.

Prominent Countries With Vietnamese Speakers: Vietnam, Canada, United States, Australia, and France.

17- Telugu

✷ Total Speakers: 96 million
✷ Native Speakers: 82.7 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 13 million

In India, Telugu is the fourth most common language and is predominantly spoken in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.  It is a part of the Dravidian language family and has been around for about 5,000 years.

It’s known as the “Italian of the East” due to its melodious sound, where every word ends with a vowel. Carrying out worthwhile Telugu translation is difficult as the language changes its pronunciation based on the following consonant, which makes it a linguistic chameleon.

Prominent Countries With Telugu Speakers: India, Australia, United States, Malaysia, Mauritius, UAE

18- Turkish

✷ Total Speakers: 91 million
✷ Native Speakers: 85 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 6 million

Turkish is the official language of Turkey, and until 1928 it is used to be written in a modified version of the Arabic alphabet. Later, the Roman alphabet replaced it. Turkish is an agglutinative language, meaning you can stack suffixes onto words and can create super-long words.

When you need exceptional Turkish translation, you really need to work with the expert translators who can deliver promising translation.

Prominent Countries With Turkish Speakers: Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Syria, etc.

19- Swahili

✷ Total Speakers: 87 million
✷ Native Speakers: 4 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 83 million

The Swahili language belongs to the Bantu language family and written in the Latin alphabet. It is part of the larger Niger-Congo language group and serves as a common language for communication among people from linguistic backgrounds in East Africa.

Swahili has incorporated vocabulary and some grammatical elements from Persian, Arabic, Portuguese, and English. When seeking true Swahili translation, reflecting its historical aspect helps to deliver promising translation.

Prominent Countries With Swahili Speakers: Tanzania and Kenya.

20- Taglog

✷ Total Speakers: 87 million
✷ Native Speakers: 33 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 54 million

Tagalog is an Austronesian language, and is primarily spoken in the Philippines. Tagalog is known for its complex verbal system and borrowing from other languages. Tagalog follows verb-initial word order, where the verb comes at the beginning of the sentence.

Tagalog is known to be absorbed from Spanish, English, and Chinese, and getting powerful Tagalog translation becomes easy with such languages.

Prominent Countries With Tagalog Speakers: Philippines

21- Tamil

✷ Total Speakers: 86 million
✷ Native Speakers: 79 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 7 million

Tamil is a classical Dravidian language and highly spoken in the Indian state, Tamil Nadu. It is one of the oldest living languages in the world and is known for its rich literary tradition. Despite the time, Tamil maintains a deep significance among its speakers.

So, when it comes to connecting with the Tamil Nadu people, getting an absolute Tamil translation allows one to connect with the Tamil speakers successfully.

Prominent Countries With Tamil Speakers: India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Myanmar.

22- Yue Chinese

✷ Total Speakers: 86 million
✷ Native Speakers: 85 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 01 million

Yue Chinese is a closely related Chinese dialect. Cantonese is the most popular of these dialects and is highly known among overseas communities outside of China. While Mandarin has 4 tones, Cantonese boasts 9 tones, and when you are focused on connecting with the Chinese speakers, getting right Chinese translation will assist you in the best way.

Prominent Countries With Yue Chinese Speakers: China, Hong Kong and Macau.

23- Italian

✷ Total Speakers: 85 million
✷ Native Speakers: 67 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 18 million

Around 93% of Italy’s population is native Italian speakers. It’s a popular language to learn after English, Spanish, and the Chinese language. Italian is deeply intertwined with Italian culture, art, and literature, and its influence can be seen in various fields.

Italy’s consumer market is really strong, and international companies plan and expand in the Italian market. In this, using high-grade Italian translation could be a way to establish in the market and connect with Italian speakers.

Prominent Countries With Italian Speakers: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Argentina, Brazil, etc.

24- Korean

✷ Total Speakers: 82 million
✷ Native Speakers: 81 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 01 million

Korean is described as a language isolate, and it’s not related to any other known language family. However, earlier Koreans used to rely on the Classical Chinese writing system, but in the 15th century, it followed the Hangul script.

Around 50% of Korean words come from Chinese. Also, it is important to note that Korean grammar is notably different from English, with a subject-object-verb (SOV) word order. This makes it difficult when carrying out result-driven Korean translation with the English language pair.

Prominent Countries With Korean Speakers: South Korea (Republic of Korea) and North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)

25- Dutch

✷ Total Speakers: 23 million
✷ Native Speakers: 17 million
✷ Non-Native Speakers: 6.5 million

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the standard Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. The Dutch language has developed from the Low Franconian language around 700 CE. Small communities of Dutch speakers can be found in other parts of the world with historical ties to Dutch-speaking regions.

While being closely related, German and Dutch are not mutually intelligible. So, when it comes to getting perfect Dutch translation, translators won’t have to struggle much.

Prominent Countries With Dutch Speakers: Netherlands and Belgium

Conclusion

The popularity of a language depends on utility and geographic location. Above me have listed 25 popularly spoken spread of world languages that vary greatly depending on whether you look at total speakers or native speakers. Connecting with language speakers would require you to speak in their local language. No matter what language you choose, Tridindia is here to assist you in translation in 150+ languages.

We have a huge team of native language translators to assist you in your translation needs.

If you are interested to know more about us, contact us at +91-8527599223 or quickly send us a instant quote.