If every country spoke only one language, there would be around 200 languages in the world today. But as you probably know, every country speaks many languages—and in some cases, hundreds of languages!
So how many languages are there today? Take a look at the total number of languages in the world, which language families have the most speakers, and which countries have the highest number of languages spoken within their borders.
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Total languages in the world
Today there are 7,164 languages spoken across the world. However, these languages are not evenly distributed across populations. Over 3.6 billion people speak the 20 most spoken languages in the world, accounting for only 0.3% of the world’s total languages.
Number of languages spoken by region
So how many languages are there and where are most of these languages spoken? When you group languages by region, you’ll find that over 60% of the world’s languages are spoken in only two continents, according to Ethnologue.
| Region | Number of Languages |
| Asia | 2,310 |
| Africa | 2,169 |
| Pacific (Oceania) | 1,321 |
| North and South America | 1,070 |
| Europe | 294 |
In Asia, more than 32% of the world’s languages are spoken by around 4.3 billion people, making it the most linguistically diverse continent on Earth. Africa follows closely with 1.2 billion people speaking 30% of world languages.
And while Europe has the fewest number of languages by continent, 1.7 billion people speak its 294 languages—more than Africa and the Pacific region combined.
Which country speaks the most languages?
With over 840 languages spoken within its borders, Papua New Guinea has the highest linguistic diversity of any country in the world. Residents of Papua New Guinea mainly speak Austronesian languages like Hiri Motu and Malik, English and English Creole languages like Tok Pisin, native Papuan languages, and Papua New Guinean Sign Language.
Many other languages also have strong linguistic diversity. In Indonesia, you may hear over 700 languages spoken, and Nigeria and India include over 400 languages each. More than 300 languages are spoken in the United States, Australia, and China, while residents of Mexico, Brazil, and Cameroon speak over 200 languages themselves.
Number of sign languages vs. spoken languages
Included in the total number of world languages are more than 300 sign languages. Around 500,000 people use American Sign Language (ASL) in the United States, making it the third most common language in the country behind English and Spanish.
However, ASL is not the most commonly used sign language in the world. Of the world’s estimated 70 million people in the deaf population, over one-fifth use Indo-Pakistani Sign Language (IPSL) as their primary language in South Asia.
List of languages by language family
Linguists and historians divide world languages into language families, based on their origins and similarities. These languages aren’t considered dialects of larger languages, although some likely started that way. Today, they each have distinct vocabularies, grammar systems, and pronunciation patterns that classify them as their own languages.
While there are around 143 language families in the world, around 80% of the world’s languages fall into the largest 12 language families. Each family includes at least 1% of the world’s living languages.
| Language Family | Number of Languages (Approx)* | Most Common Languages |
| Niger-Congo | 1,552 | Swahili, Yoruba, Igbo |
| Austronesian | 1,256 | Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog |
| Trans New-Guinea | 481 | Enga, Melpa, Kuman |
| Sino-Tibetan | 458 | Mandarin, Cantonese, Wú |
| Indo-European | 454 | English, Hindi, Spanish |
| Australian | 384 | Djambarrpuyngu, Murrinh-patha, Pitjantjatjara |
| Afro-Asiatic | 382 | Arabic, Oromo, Hausa |
| Nilo-Saharan | 210 | Luo, Kanuri, Zarma |
| Otomanguean | 179 | Zapotecan, Mixtecan, Hidalgo |
| Austroasiatic | 167 | Khmer, Mon, Vietnamese |
| Kra-Dai | 91 | Thai, Lao, Isan |
| Dravidian | 85 | Telugu, Tamil, Kannada |
Which language family has the most speakers?
When you see how many languages are there in the Niger-Congo language family (over 1,500!), you may assume it has the most speakers. But that’s not the case. According to Ethnologue, around 4.7 billion people speak an Indo-European or Sino-Tibetan language. In fact, 11 of the top 20 languages in the world come from these two language families.
Indo-European language family
If you grew up in an area that mainly spoke Indo-European languages, these may be the most familiar to you. And for good reason: Even though there are just over 450 languages in the Indo-European language family, they’re spoken by over 3.32 billion people.
The most popular Indo-European languages include:
- English, a Germanic language
- Romance languages such as Spanish and French
- Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language on the Iranian language branch
- Slavic languages like Russian
Indo-European languages are also among the easiest languages to learn for English learners. Spanish, French, and Italian have similar Latin-based vocabularies to English, while German shares Germanic features with English, including grammar and pronunciation.
Use Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion Method to discover even more about how English speakers can learn Indo-European languages.
Sino-Tibetan language family
According to Ethnologue, over 1.43 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan language—and over 1.1 billion of them speak Mandarin. Considered one of the hardest languages to learn, Mandarin is also the most common first language in the world with over 955 native Mandarin speakers.
The other 300 million speakers of Sino-Tibetan languages speak:
- Other Chinese languages on the Sinitic language branch, including Cantonese (Yue), Wu, and Jin
- Tibetic languages like Standard Tibetan and Amdo Tibetan
- Burmese, Lolo, and Kukish
- Karen languages like Sgaw and Pwo
Most Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken throughout China, Burma, Nepal, Thailand, and parts of India. Besides Mandarin, these languages are mainly spoken by native speakers and aren’t commonly taught outside their regions of origin. However, if you want to learn Chinese (Mandarin), you may find it easier to learn other Sino-Tibetan languages.
The status of world languages
The total number of languages today is over 7,100, but that hasn’t always been the case—and it may not be the case in the future. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 8,324 total languages have been recorded throughout history.
UNESCO groups all known world languages into six language status categories:
- Safe: Spoken as a native language by multiple generations in many contexts
- Vulnerable: Spoken as a native language in limited contexts
- Endangered: Only spoken by children as a second language, not a native language
- Severely endangered: Only spoken by older generations
- Critically endangered: Irregularly spoken or partially understood by older generations
- Not in use: No current speakers
How many languages are there that are endangered?
Around 3,170 languages are endangered today, which is over 44% of the total languages in the world. Another 3,508 are categorized as stable, while around 486 of the world’s languages are considered institutional, meaning they’re widely used in media, schools, and government communications.
Many experts believe the number of endangered and extinct languages will dramatically increase by 2100. Some estimate that around 50% of living languages are in danger, while others consider the number to be closer to 95%.
For this reason, the United Nations, the Endangered Language Alliance, the Enduring Voices Project, and other language-focused groups work to record, preserve, and even revitalize indigenous languages that are at risk of disappearing in the next century.
A learning journey starts with one language
There are so many languages in the world that it’s impossible to learn them all. Even if you become a polyglot who speaks five or more languages, you’d speak less than 0.1% of the world’s languages—and you’d need to learn over 70 languages to even get close to 1% of them!
Fortunately, you don’t need to learn every language to enjoy the benefits of being multilingual. There are many ways to learn a language, and the best one is the method that gets you excited about your new learning journey. If you’re ready to pick up a new language, learn more about how Rosetta Stone works, and how it can work for you.
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