Factoid: Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world
Written on February 26, 2008
In order of estimated number of speakers
| Language | Estimated speakers | |
| 1 | Chinese (Mandarin) | 1,070,000,000 |
| 2 | English | 508,000,000 |
| 3 | Hindustani | 497,000,000 |
| 4 | Spanish | 392,000,000 |
| 5 | Russian | 277,000,000 |
| 6 | Arabic | 246,000,000 |
| 7 | Bengali | 211,000,000 |
| 8 | Portugese | 191,000,000 |
| 9 | Malay-Indonesian | 159,000,000 |
| 10 | French | 129,000,000 |
Based upon a 1998 survey. There are also three other languages that are spoken by more than 100 million people each: German (128 million), Japanese (126 million), and Urdu (105 million).
Source: Opusfourfour.com
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Filed in: Factoid, Research & stats.
