the world (original) (raw)

A language becomes endangered when its users begin to teach and speak a more dominant language to their children. We look at the number of endangered languages in the world today.

We factor in both native and non-native speakers to determine the largest language in the world. Also included is our current list of the world's four most spoken languages.

More than 7,000 languages are spoken today. We explore exactly how many there are, their geographic distribution, and compare endangered languages with the world's largest languages.

At a Glance

Clickable world globe showing country outlines

7.668 billionpeople
7,159living languages
430 milliondeaf
86%literate

Recent Articles

As our contribution to the celebration of International Mother Language Day, we are pleased to announce the release of the 28th edition of Ethnologue.

The Global Voice (GV) initiative is a program launched by Ethnologue to improve the quality of the data that is available on the language ecologies of the world.

All of us are at risk for disease. But for millions who speak a lesser-known language, that risk is compounded by the lack of health materials in a language they understand.

Scripts

Scripts used in the languages of the world

[-arab]
script writing sample

[-cher]
script writing sample

[-khmr]
script writing sample

Data Contributors

Meet more contributors.

Nate Cheeseman

Nate has been a contributor since 2010 and has contributed over 2800 times. Nate has been a minority language researcher for over 19 years and is focused on the languages of Southeast Asia.

Antoine Dusséaux

Antoine has been a contributor since 2021 and has contributed 672 times. Antoine is a language enthusiast and active contributor to Ethnologue and Wikipedia.

Renhard Saupia

Renhard has been a contributor since 2019 and has contributed 48 times. Renhard is focused on the languages of Indonesia.

Jean Pacquement

Jean has been a contributor since 2021 and has contributed 36 times. Jean has been a minority language researcher for over 30 years and is focused on the Tai languages of Southeast Asia.

Resources

Read how to interpret Code Tables.