Do more people speak English or Mandarin Chinese around the world? What is the most popular language spoken in Europe? Or Africa? And what language do most people choose to learn as a second language? The language spoken in a country or region tells a lot about that area’s history. As you listen to conversations on the street, you can learn more about that country’s past—and begin to learn a brand new language.
Whether you’re learning a local dialect or one of the most spoken languages in the world, it’s helpful to know where you’ll find that language’s speakers. Take a look at Rosetta Stone’s breakdown of the most common languages in the world, by continent and number of speakers.
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The most spoken languages on each continent
No matter what continent you visit, you’ll find hundreds—or even thousands—of languages spoken from coast to coast. Languages like English, French, and Spanish travel the globe to become lingua francas (shared languages for different populations to communicate), while languages like Swahili and Quechua are primarily spoken in their native lands.
This article will help you take a trip around the world to learn what languages citizens are most likely to speak on each continent—and what countries you should visit if you’re trying to learn those dialects or become a polyglot yourself.
Top languages in North and Central America
On your first stop in North and Central America, you’ll hear a variety of languages, whether you’re visiting the Caribbean islands or the northern borders of Canada. The total population of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean is 608 million—about half of whom live in the United States.
The three most spoken languages in the US, Mexico, and Canada (English, Spanish, and French) reflect the impact of European exploration in North America. However, there are many areas of North America where indigenous languages are still spoken, including Navajo and Apache in the Southwest of the US or Inuit in northwestern Canada.
| Language* | Number of Native Speakers (approx.) | Primary Countries |
| English | 300 million | United States, Canada, Bermuda |
| Spanish | 200 million | Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Puerto Rico |
| French | 16 million | Canada, United States, Haiti |
*data collected from Worlddata.info
Languages commonly spoken in Europe
Your next stop is the continent of Europe, where approximately 741 million people live in over 51 sovereign states and countries. The primary languages in Europe come from the Indo-European language family, and most European citizens speak languages of neighboring countries as well as their own native languages.
These languages include Balto-Slavic dialects in Eastern Europe and Latin-based romance languages spoken in Italy, Spain, and France. Germanic languages like English, German, and Dutch, which evolved from a common German ancestral language, are also popular in several European countries today. That makes it easy for English-speaking travelers to communicate as they explore the cathedrals, museums, and castles of Europe.
The nation of Russia is technically split between Europe and Asia since it spans both continents. Nearly 80% of the population lives in the western 30% of the country, so linguistically speaking, Russian takes the top spot of European languages, though this concentration is localized. As you travel through the more common countries of western and southern Europe, you’ll encounter local languages, German, French, and English.
| Language* | Number of Native Speakers (approx.) | Primary Countries |
| Russian | 138 million | Western Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Latvia, Estonia |
| German | 93 million | Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Russia |
| English | 72 million | United Kingdom, Ireland |
| French | 71 million | France, Belgium, Switzerland |
| Italian | 57 million | Italy, Switzerland, Germany |
| Spanish | 36 million | Spain, France |
*data collected from Worlddata.info
The most common languages in Africa
Travel south to the continent of Africa, the most linguistically diverse continent on Earth.
With anywhere between 1,000-2,000 languages spoken in Africa, this continent is home to one third of the world’s languages. To the untrained ear, they may sound similar in many cases, but they are considered unique languages and dialects. According to World Population Review, over 1.5 billion people live in the 54 states and countries of Africa, speaking a range of tribal dialects to the most widely spoken language of Swahili, whose speakers total 60 to 150 million in Tanzania and East Africa.
Most people living in North Africa, including Egypt and Algeria, speak Arabic as their primary language. A total of 26 French-speaking countries, including Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tunisia, and Mali, designated French as their official language, making Africa the continent with the most French speakers. And you might be surprised to learn about Hausa. It’s a language spoken in many countries like Nigeria for commercial purposes, yet it has no single native origin! Exploring the countries in Africa will be a linguistic journey to remember.
| Language* | Number of Native Speakers (approx.) | Primary Countries |
| Arabic | 217 million | Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan |
| French | 96 million | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon |
| Hausa | 68 million | Nigeria, Niger, Ghana |
| English | 55 million | Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Cameroon |
| Swahili | 11 million | Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya |
*data collected from Worlddata.info
Top spoken languages in Asia
Nearly five billion people live on the Asian continent, half of whom live in China and India. Perhaps surprisingly, only 30% of the Asian population (955 million people) speaks Mandarin Chinese as their first language, with another 12% speaking Hindi. If you travel through Asia, you’ll realize the diversity of languages is impressive and you’ll hear many dialects as you explore major cities.
This region includes south Asia and western Asia, also known as the Middle East where Arabic is a common language in Iraq, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. Punjabi dominates in Pakistan, just as Japanese does in Japan. Eastern Russia, which is considered part of the Asian continent, has much fewer native speakers than western Russia.
| Language* | Number of Native Speakers (approx.) | Primary Countries |
| Mandarin Chinese | 955 million | China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore |
| Hindi | 575 million | India |
| Bengali | 284 million | Bangladesh, India |
| Arabic | 160 million | Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan |
| Punjabi | 156 million | Pakistan, India |
| Japanese | 123 million | Japan |
| Russian | 8 million | Russia |
*data collected from Worlddata.info
Languages you’re most likely to hear in South America
Head across the globe to South America, where over 400 million people speak either Spanish or Portuguese. South American languages reflect the continent’s history of European colonization—but today, they’re spoken by more South Americans than Europeans. You’ll find that more Spanish speakers live in both Colombia and Argentina than in Spain. And in Brazil, over 200 million people speak Portuguese, compared to 10 million in Portugal.
Like North America, you can still hear indigenous dialects in your South American travels. Quechua, historically spoken by the Inca, is the third-most common language spoken on the continent, and Tupí-Guaraní is still spoken in modern-day Paraguay. And if you travel to Guyana in northeast South America, you’ll hear a familiar language, as English is the official language of the country.
| Language* | Number of Native Speakers (approx.) | Primary Countries |
| Spanish | 200 million | Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia |
| Portuguese | 200 million | Brazil |
| Quechua | 8 million | Peru, Bolivia |
*data collected from Worlddata.info
The most common languages in Oceania
The final stop on your world language tour is Oceania, where 46 million people live across 14 countries and territories in the Pacific Ocean. More than half of them live in Australia, where English is the primary spoken language.
However, the geological proximity of so many cultures and countries—as well as indigenous languages—significantly influences the languages spoken in each island in Oceania. For example, the official languages of Fiji are English, Fijian, and Fiji Hindi, reflecting the influence of nearby India as well as European explorers. You’ll hear English in Papua New Guinea as well, along with 1,100 Papuan languages spoken by four million people living on the island.
| Language* | Number of Native Speakers (approx.) | Primary Countries |
| English | 20 million | Australia, New Zealand |
| Papuan languages | 4 million | Papua New Guinea |
| Mandarin Chinese | 750,000 | Australia |
*data collected from Worlddata.info
The top 5 languages spoken in the world
You could travel the world and only scratch the surface of how many languages you hear. Did you know that there are over 7,100 languages in use today? Granted, about half of the world speaks only 23 of them, since many could be considered dialects or derivatives of the main languages. For instance, there are 13 common Spanish dialects you could learn.
Over 4 billion people speak the five most spoken languages in the world as either their first or second language, and many of them are multilingual in these other key languages. English is a popular language to learn with the Rosetta Stone App, but you can explore these and others of our 25 languages!
English
Over 1.5 billion people—around 20% of the world’s total population, or one out of every five people on Earth—speak English. This number includes native and non-native speakers. English is one of the six languages used by the United Nations, and 48 countries recognize it as one of their official languages.
Mandarin Chinese
An estimated 1.1 billion people world speak Mandarin Chinese, including 955 native speakers in China. That number accounts for nearly 14% of the world’s population. While Mandarin is the most widely spoken Chinese dialect in the world, nearly 100 million people speak other dialects of Chinese, including Cantonese, which is more similar to ancient Chinese than Mandarin Chinese.
Hindi
Native to India and other regions of South Asia, Hindi is spoken by nearly 610 million people around the world. Hindi and English are India’s official languages, and Hindi has spread throughout the world as native speakers immigrate or travel to new countries.
Spanish
With native and non-native speakers spanning multiple continents, including North America, South America, Africa, and Europe, Spanish is one of the most common languages in the world. Over 559 million people around the globe speak one of the 13 Spanish dialects, which include Mexican Spanish, Castilian Spanish in Spain, and Equatoguinean Spanish in Africa.
French
Around 311 million people in the world speak French, including in 29 countries where French is an official language. It is the only language used by the European Union’s Court of Justice and one of three procedural languages of the European Union.
La Francophonie (the area of the world that speaks French) includes France, Canada, and 26 African countries, and several French-speaking Caribbean Islands. These regions speak a number of French dialects influenced by regional languages and neighboring countries and cultures, so don’t be surprised if the French you hear isn’t quite like the French you learned in school.
What are the most spoken native languages in the world?
With over 955 million native speakers, Mandarin Chinese is the most common first or native language in the world. Spanish is the second most common, with 485 million native speakers, and English is the third most common with about 619 million native speakers.
You can travel to almost any part of South Asia or Indonesia and hear Mandarin spoken, just as you could in major cities like San Francisco and London. The primary Spanish language you’ll hear in North, Central, and South America will be Latin American Spanish, which is different from Peninsular Spanish spoken in Spain. And there are a variety of English dialects you’ll encounter that are native to speakers in regions like Australia, the United Kingdom, North America, Singapore, South Africa, India, and Nigeria.
What are the most commonly learned languages in the world?
While English is only the third most spoken first language, it’s the most spoken language in the world at 1.5 billion speakers. That means nearly a billion English speakers learned English after their first language.
It’s difficult to identify which version of English (British vs. American) you’ll hear the most as you travel, since the impact of the British Empire on industry and colonization lasts today in countries like Singapore and India. Yet the popularity of learning American English persists, and you’ll find it much more prevalent in Central and South America and among younger people who pick it up from social media and pop culture.
Many English learners adopt their second language for business, while others learn English to acclimate to a new country or region. Rosetta Stone’s language learning tools, including the Dynamic Immersion method, make it easy to learn any language quickly and efficiently.
Start your language learning journey today
Now that you know the most spoken languages in the world, you might wonder which language has the most words. But no matter your curiosity about languages, if you’re ready to immerse yourself in a new language and culture, Rosetta Stone can help you start an exciting language learning journey. A Rosetta Stone lifetime subscription gives you access to all 25 languages the program offers, making it simple to learn enough language to travel or to become proficient in a brand new tongue.
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