Official languages by the numbers
English is an official language in 58 countries, more than any other. Bolivia has 37 official languages of its own, and 131 countries have exactly one.
Computed from the site’s dataLast checked 17 October 2026Suggest a correction
An official language is one a country's law names for government, courts or schools; it isn't always the one most people speak at home.[1] Across the 197 countries, 163 languages are official somewhere, and 131 of them in only one country.[1]
The most widespread
English is official in 58 countries, nearly twice as many as French, with 30.[1] They include India, Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines, which is why some 3.1 billion people live in a country where English is official.[1][2] That counts everyone in each country, not the people who actually speak it.[2]
Arabic, with 25, and Spanish, with 20, come next.[1] Chinese is official in only three countries, China, Singapore and Taiwan, but those countries are home to 1.4 billion people.[1][2]
| # | Language | Countries | People in those countries |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | 58 | 3.1 billion |
| 2 | French | 30 | 557 million |
| 3 | Arabic | 25 | 538 million |
| 4 | Spanish | 20 | 482 million |
| 5 | Portuguese | 9 | 305 million |
| 6 | German | 6 | 114 million |
| 7 | Swahili | 4 | 194 million |
| 8 | Russian | 4 | 181 million |
| 9 | Italian | 4 | 68 million |
The most in one country
Bolivia's 2009 constitution makes Spanish official along with every language of the country's indigenous peoples, and names them: 36, from Aymara and Quechua to Zamuco.[3] The national government and each department's must use at least two of them, and one must be Spanish.[3]
Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution lists 16 officially recognised languages, sign language among them.[4] South Africa had eleven until July 2023, when a constitutional amendment made South African Sign Language the twelfth.[5]
| # | Country | Official languages |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Bolivia | 37 |
| 2 |  Zimbabwe | 16 |
| 3 |  South Africa | 12 |
| 4 |  Rwanda | 4 |
| 5 |  Singapore | 4 |
| 6 |  Switzerland | 4 |
Just one
Of the 197 countries, 131 have a single official language.[1] Of the 131 languages official in just one country, those with the most people behind them are Hindi (India), Indonesian (Indonesia), Urdu (Pakistan), Bengali (Bangladesh) and Amharic (Ethiopia).[1][2]
Official doesn't mean the only language a country uses. DR Congo's constitution makes French its one official language, and names four national languages, Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba, that the state must promote.[6]
How we counted
Official languages are the ones Globe Atlas shows for each country: the world-countries list of official languages, corrected by hand where it's out of date or counts regional languages as national ones.[1] Where a constitution recognises languages without making them official, as DR Congo's does with its national languages, they aren't counted.[6]
Populations are the World Bank's latest total for each country.[2]
Sources
- [1]world-countries · Mohammed Le Doze, on GitHub
Each country's official languages, as Globe Atlas shows them, with the site's corrections (scripts/build-country-profile.mjs).
- [2]
- [3]Bolivia (Plurinational State of)'s Constitution of 2009, article 5 · Constitute Project
- [4]Zimbabwe's Constitution of 2013, section 6 · Constitute Project
- [5]President Cyril Ramaphosa: Signing ceremony of South African Sign Language Bill · South African Government · 19 July 2023
- [6]Congo (Democratic Republic of the)'s Constitution of 2005 (rev. 2011), article 1 · Constitute Project
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