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SCIENCE / LINGUISTICS
List: Top Ten Most Spoken Languages
Date: 2004
Source: UNESCO
Base: Mid-point range of estimates of numbers of first or second language speakers only.
Notes:
|
Language
|
No. of Speakers (billion)
|
|
Mandarin
|
1.00
|
|
English
|
0.48
|
|
Hindi
|
0.41
|
|
Spanish
|
0.40
|
|
Russian
|
0.31
|
|
Arabic
|
0.22
|
|
Bengali
|
0.21
|
|
Portuguese
|
0.20
|
|
French
|
0.19
|
|
Japanese
|
0.12
|
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