List of languages by number of native speakers in India explained

The Republic of India is home to several hundred languages. Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European (c. 77%), the Dravidian (c. 20.61%), the Austroasiatic (precisely Munda and Khasic) (c. 1.2%), or the Sino-Tibetan (precisely Tibeto-Burman) (c. 0.8%), with some languages of the Himalayas still unclassified. The SIL Ethnologue lists 424 living languages in India.^[1]

Overview

Kauravi language (evolved from Sauraseni language of Prakrit language of Vedic Sanskrit language of Indo-Aryan sub-branch of Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European language family) was spoken in ancient Delhi (today's National Capital Territory of Delhi) and ancient north-western Uttar Pradesh (today's Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Saharanpur and Moradabad) and it was written in the Nagari script (ancient form of today's Devanagari script) with Sanskrit vocabulary.

During the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526), Kauravi was called Khari (Khari means Standing in English language) in Sanskrit language, that Khari language began to be written in the Persian script with Sanskrit-Arabic-Persian vocabulary and it was renamed as Hind-e-stani i.e. Hindustani language (the Sanskrit word Sindh was pronounced as Hind in Arabic-Persian language and ancient Bharat i.e. India was known as Hind-e-stan i.e. Hindustan in Arabic-Persian language).

During the Mughal Empire (1526-1757), a new separate language Urdu (Urdu is a Turkish word which means Army in English language) evolved from that Hindustani language and that new language began to be written in the Persian script with Arabic-Persian vocabulary.

During the British Empire (1757-1947), a new separate language Hindi (the Sanskrit word Sindhi was pronounced as Hindi in Arabic-Persian language) evolved from that Hindustani language and that new language began to be written in the Devanagari script (modern form of ancient Nagari script) with Sanskrit-Persian-Arabic vocabulary, and that Khari language became Khari dialect (it became Khari-boli in Hindustani language) as the main dialect of Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu) and the other north Indian languages Bhojpuri-Magahi-Maithili (evolved from Magadhi language of Prakrit language of Vedic Sanskrit of Indo-Aryan sub-branch of Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European language family) and Awadhi-Bagheli-Bhili-Braja-Bundeli-Chhattisgarhi-Garhwali- Haryanvi-Marwari-Pahari (evolved from Sauraseni language of Prakrit language of Vedic Sanskrit of Indo-Aryan sub-branch of Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European language family) became sub-dialects of Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu). After the Independence of India in 1947, only Maithili again became a language under the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

• Indo-European
  • Germanic
    • Anglo
      • English (Language of Science and Commerce)
        • American
        • British
  • Indo-Iranian
    • Indo-Aryan
      • Vedic Sanskrit
        • Prakrit
          • Magadhi
            • Bengali (Magadhi Master Language)
              • Bangali (Bangladesh and Tripura)
              • Rarhi (West Bengal)
            • Bhojpuri (Uttar Pradesh and Bihar)
            • Chittagonian (Bangladesh)
            • Kamrupi
              • Assamese (Assam)
              • Rajbangshi (Bangladesh and West Bengal)
              • Sylheti (Bangladesh and Assam)
            • Magahi (Bihar)
              • Khortha (Jharkhand)
            • Maithili (Bihar)
            • Odia (Odisha)
            • Rohingya (Myanmar)
              • • • • • • Maharashtri Konkani (Goa)
            • Marathi (Maharashtra)
            • Sinhalese (Sri Lanka)
          • Pali
          • Sauraseni
            • Awadhi (Uttar Pradesh)
            • Bagheli (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh)
            • Bhili (Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan)
            • Braja (Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan)
            • Bundeli (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh)
            • Chhattisgarhi (Chhattisgarh)
            • Dardic
              • Kashmiri (Jammu and Kashmir)
            • Gujarati (Gujarat)
            • Haryanvi (Haryana)
            • Kauravi
              • Hindustani (Sauraseni Master Language)
                • Hindi (Uttar Pradesh and Delhi)
                • Urdu (Uttar Pradesh and Delhi)
            • Marwari (Rajasthan)
            • Pahari (Himachal Pradesh)
              • Garhwali (Uttarakhand)
              • Nepali (Nepal and West Bengal)
            • Punjabi (Pakistan's Punjab and India's Punjab)
              • Dogri (Jammu and Kashmir)
            • Sindhi (Pakistan's Sindh)
        • Sanskrit
    • Iranian
      • Balochi (Pakistan's Balochistan)
      • Pashto (Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Afghanistan)
      • Persian (Iran)

List of languages by number of native speakers

Ordered by number of speakers as first language.

More than one million speakers

The 2011 census recorded 31 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers (0.1% of total population). The languages in bold are scheduled languages (the only scheduled language with less than 1 million native speakers is Sanskrit). The first table is restricted to only speaking populations for scheduled languages.

First language speakers! rowspan="2"

Second language speakers	Third language speakers	Total speakers
Language		Figure[2]	% of total population	Figure[3]	% of total population
Hindi	322,230,097	26.61%	139,207,180	24,160,696	485,597,973	40.10%
Bengali	97,237,669	8.03%	9,037,222	1,008,088	107,237,669	8.85%
Marathi	83,026,680	6.86%	12,923,626	2,966,019	99,026,680	8.18%
Telugu	81,127,740	6.70%	11,946,414	1,001,498	94,127,740	7.77%
Tamil	69,026,881	5.70%	6,992,253	956,335	77,026,881	6.36%
Gujarati	55,492,554	4.58%	4,035,489	1,007,912	60,492,554	4.99%
Urdu	50,772,631	4.19%	11,055,287	1,096,428	62,772,631	5.18%
Kannada	43,706,512	3.61%	14,076,355	993,989	58,706,512	4.84%
Odia	37,521,324	3.10%	4,972,151	31,525	42,551,324	3.51%
Malayalam	34,838,819	2.88%	499,188	195,885	35,538,819	2.93%
Punjabi	33,124,726	2.74%	2,300,000	720,000	36,074,726	2.97%
Assamese	15,311,351	1.26%	7,488,153	740,402	23,539,906	1.94%
Maithili	13,063,042	1.08%	400,200	120,222	13,583,464	1.12%
English	259,678	0.02%	83,125,221	45,993,066	129,259,678	10.67%

Table: Population ordered by number of native speakers

Rank	Language	1991 census of India[4] (total: 838,583,988)		2001 census of India[5] (total: 1,028,610,328)		2011 Census of India[6] [7] (total: 1,210,854,977)[8]		Encarta 2007 estimate[9] Worldwide total
		Speakers	Percentage	Speakers	Percentage	Speakers	Percentage	Speakers
1	Hindi	233,432,285	27.83%	257,919,635	25.07%	322,230,097	26.61%	366 million
2	Bengali	69,595,738	8.30%	83,369,769	8.11%	97,237,669	8.03%	207 million
3	Marathi	62,481,681	7.45%	71,936,894	6.99%	83,026,680	6.86%	68.0 million
4	Telugu	66,017,615	7.87%	74,002,856	7.19%	81,127,740	6.70%	69.7 million
5	Tamil	53,006,368	6.32%	60,793,814	5.91%	69,026,881	5.70%	66.0 million
6	Gujarati	40,673,814	4.85%	46,091,617	4.48%	55,492,554	4.58%	46.1 million
7	Urdu	43,406,932	5.18%	51,536,111	5.01%	50,772,631	4.19%	60.3 million
8	Kannada	32,753,676	3.91%	37,924,011	3.69%	43,706,512	3.61%	35.3 million
9	Odia	28,061,313	3.35%	33,017,446	3.21%	37,521,324	3.10%	32.3 million
10	Malayalam	30,377,176	3.62%	33,066,392	3.21%	34,838,819	2.88%	35.7 million
11	Punjabi	23,378,744	2.79%	29,102,477	2.83%	33,124,726	2.74%	57.1 million
12	Assamese	13,079,696	1.56%	13,168,484	1.28%	15,311,351	1.26%	15.4 million
13	Maithili	7,766,921	0.926%	12,179,122	1.18%	13,583,464	1.12%	24.2 million
14				9,582,957	0.93%	10,413,637	0.86%
15	Santali	5,216,325	0.622%	6,469,600	0.63%	7,368,192	0.61%
16	Kashmiri			5,527,698	0.54%	6,797,587	0.56%
17				2,713,790	0.26%	2,984,453	0.25%
18	Nepali	2,076,645	0.248%	2,871,749	0.28%	2,926,168	0.24%	16.1 million
19	Sindhi	2,122,848	0.253%	2,535,485	0.25%	2,772,264	0.23%	19.7 million
20	Dogri			2,282,589	0.22%	2,596,767	0.21%
21	Konkani	1,760,607	0.210%	2,489,015	0.24%	2,256,502	0.19%
22				1,751,489	0.17%	1,988,350	0.16%
23				2,075,258	0.21%	1,860,236	0.15%
24				1,722,768	0.17%	1,846,427	0.15%
25	Meitei (Manipuri)	1,270,216	0.151%	1,466,705*	0.14%	1,761,079	0.15%
26	Bodo	1,221,881	0.146%	1,350,478	0.13%	1,482,929	0.12%
27				1,128,575	0.11%	1,431,344	0.12%
28				1,042,724	0.101%	1,421,418	0.12%
29				1,061,352	0.103%	1,145,323	0.09%
30				889,479	0.086%	1,128,228	0.09%
31				854,023	0.083%	1,011,294	0.08%

• Excludes figures of Paomata, Mao-Maram and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur for 2001.
  

• • The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the total population of India excluding the population of Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati district of Manipur due to cancellation of census results.

100,000 to one million speakers

Rank	Language	2001 census
		Speakers	Percentage
32		916,222	0.089%
33		674,756	0.066%
34		593,443	0.058%
35		574,481	0.056%
36		551,224	0.054%
37	Munda	469,357	0.046%
38		419,534	0.041%
39		362,070	0.035%
40		261,387	0.025%
41		252,519	0.025%
42		248,109	0.024%
43		239,608	0.023%
44		226,449	0.022%
45		224,926	0.022%
46		211,485	0.021%
47		198,462	0.019%
48		190,595	0.019%
49		170,001	0.017%
50		166,187	0.016%
51		164,770	0.016%
52		142,035	0.014%
53		141,088	0.014%
54		132,225	0.013%
55		122,508	0.012%
56		121,855	0.012%
57	Khond/Kondh[10]	118,597	0.012%
58		111,961	0.011%
59		104,618	0.010%
60		103,529	0.010%

List of mother tongues by number of speakers

Each of the languages of the 2001 census subsumes one or more mother tongues. Speaker numbers are available for these mother tongues and they are also included in the speaker numbers for their respective language. For example, the language Telugu (with a total of 81,127,740 speakers) includes the mother tongues of Telugu (with 80,912,459 speakers), Vadari (198,020 speakers) and "Others" (17,261 speakers).^[11] The General Notes from the 2001 census define "mother tongue" as "the language spoken in childhood by the person's mother to the person. If the mother died in infancy, the language mainly spoken in the person's home in childhood will be the mother tongue."^[12]

The following table lists those mother tongues that have more than one million speakers according to the 2011 census:^[13]

Rank

Mother tongue	2011 census		Included in language
	Speakers	Percentage
1			%
2			%
3			%
4			%
5			%
6			%
7			%
8			%	Hindi
9			%
10			%
11			%
12			%
13			%	Hindi
14			%	Hindi
15			%
16			%
17			%	Hindi
18			0.810%	Hindi
19			0.664%	Hindi
20			0.647%	Hindi
21			0.576%
22			0.541%
23			0.465%	Hindi
24			0.430%	Hindi
25			0.359%	Hindi
26			0.348%	Hindi
27			0.318%	Hindi
28			0.280%	Bhili/Bhilodi
29			0.271%	Hindi
30			0.269%	Hindi
31			0.265%
32			0.243%	Hindi
33			0.242%
34			0.236%
35			0.221%	Hindi
36			0.217%	Odia
37			0.214%
38			0.205%	Hindi
39			0.191%	Hindi
40			0.186%	Hindi
41			0.177%
42			0.172%	Hindi
43			0.163%
44			0.152%
45			0.145%
46			0.144%	Hindi
47			0.139%
48			0.137%	Punjabi
49			0.135%	Khandeshi
50			0.131%	Hindi
51			0.129%	Hindi
52			0.122%	Hindi
53			0.120%	Bodo
54			0.117%
55			0.101%	Hindi
56			0.093%
57			0.093%
58			0.092%	Hindi
59			0.086%
60			0.085%	Sindhi

See also

• Languages with official status in India
• List of endangered languages in India

References

General references

• Data table of Census of India, 2001
• Language Maps from Central Institute of Indian Languages
• Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength – 2001
• Comparative ranking of scheduled languages in descending order of speaker's strength-1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001
• Census data on Languages
• C-16 Population By Mother Tongue – Town Level
• C-16 Population By Mother Tongue

External links

• Web site: Major Indian Languages. Discover India. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070101015404/http://www.indojin.com/discoverindia/indianlang.htm. 1 January 2007.
• https://web.archive.org/web/20050109084200/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=India Ethnologue report
• Central Institute of Indian Languages]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Lewis, M. Paul . Simons, Gary F. . Fennig, Charles D.. 2014. Ethnologue: Languages of the World (Seventeenth edition) : India. SIL International. Dallas, Texas. 29 December 2023.
2. Web site: C-17 POPULATION BY BILINGUALISM AND TRILINGUALISM. Ministry of Home Affairs. Government of India. 2019-10-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20191113211224/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-17.html. 2019-11-13. dead.
3. Web site: Indiaspeak: English is our 2nd language – Times of India.
4. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/%28S%28z5ltjf55h4fqb4u2sybp3i55%29%29/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement5.aspx Comparative Speaker's Strength of Scheduled Languages -1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001
5. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/%28S%282scoev45b4mhlg45mz5jq345%29%29/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.aspx Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2000
6. Web site: Language . Census of India . . 13 May 2019 . New Delhi . 15 . PDF . 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180627091302/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/C-16_25062018_NEW.pdf . 27 June 2018.
7. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011Census/Language-2011/Statement-1.pdf Statement 1 : Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues – 2011
8. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/Language-2011/Statement-2.pdf Statement 2 : Distribution of population by Scheduled and other Languages India, States and Union Territories – 2011
9. Web site: Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People – Table – MSN Encarta . https://web.archive.org/web/20071203134724/http://encarta.msn.com/media_701500404/Languages_Spoken_by_More_Than_10_Million_People.html . 2007-12-03 . dead .
10. different from Kui language
11. The data are from http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-16/DDW-C16-STMT-MDDS-0000.XLSX.
12. Web site: Census Data 2001 General Notes. https://web.archive.org/web/20130222050810/http://www.censusindia.gov.in:80/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/gen_note.html . 22 February 2013 .
13. Web site: 2011 Census tables: C-16, population by mother tongue. Census of India Website. 4 November 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20191210063438/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/C-16.html. 10 December 2019.