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How does the number of native speakers affect rankings of the world’s most widely spoken languages?

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Three women sit together outdoors, smiling and laughing as they talk, with trees softly blurred in the background. — Language Spoken language is just one type of language, which has been defined in many different ways across history.

The number of native speakers is a primary metric for ranking the world’s most widely spoken languages, but these rankings are significantly influenced by how linguists define a "distinct language" versus a "spoken variety".12

Because many languages consist of mutually unintelligible dialects, counting them as a single unit versus separate entities can drastically alter their position. For example, if Hindi and Urdu were combined into a single language, Hindustani, it would rank third globally by native speakers, surpassing English. Conversely, if Arabic varieties were treated as distinct languages, the most common variety, Egyptian Arabic, would fall significantly in the rankings.1

Furthermore, rankings based on native speakers differ from those based on total speakers. Languages that serve as lingua francas, such as English, often rank much higher when non-native, proficient speakers are included, whereas languages with high native populations but few non-native learners, such as Chinese, may rank lower in total speaker counts compared to their native-speaker standing.12