Number of Living Languages

Did you know that there are 6909 living languages in the world?

Distribution of languages by area of origin

AreaLiving languagesNumber of speakers
CountPercentCountPercentMeanMedian
Africa2,11030.5726,453,40312.2344,29125,200
Americas99314.450,496,3210.850,8522,300
Asia2,32233.63,622,771,26460.81,560,19411,100
Europe2343.41,553,360,94126.16,638,295201,500
Pacific1,25018.16,429,7880.15,144980
Totals6,909100.05,959,511,717100.0862,5727,560

Source: Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 2009.

Also read: Will 90% of the languages cease to exist? and Endangered languages open database is launched online