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List of languages by number of native speakers in

India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

India is home to several hundred languages. Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the
Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European (ca. 74%), the Dravidian (ca. 24%), the Austroasiatic (Munda) (ca. 1.2%),
or the Sino-Tibetan (ca. 0.6%), with some languages of the Himalayas still unclassified. The SIL Ethnologue
lists 415 living languages for India.

Contents
1 Overview
2 List of languages by number of native speakers
2.1 More than one million speakers
2.2 100,000 to one million speakers
3 List of mother tongues by number of speakers
4 See also
5 References
5.1 Notes
5.2 General references
6 External links

Overview
India has 23 constitutionally recognized official languages. Hindi and English are the official languages used by
the Central Government. State governments use respective official languages.
Hindi is the most widely spoken language in northern parts of India. The Indian census takes the widest possible
definition of "Hindi" as a broad variety of "Hindi languages". According to 2001 Census even though 45% of
Indian population know Hindi, only 25% of them have declared Hindi as their native language or mother
tongue.[1] Indian English is recorded as the native language of 226,449 Indians in the 2001 census.[2]
Thirteen languages account for more than 1% of Indian population each, and between themselves for over 95%;
all of them are "scheduled languages of the constitution". Scheduled languages spoken by fewer than 1% of
Indians are Santali (0.64%), Nepali (0.28%), Sindhi (0.25%), Manipuri (0.14%), Bodo (0.13%), Dogri (0.01%),
and Sanskrit (In the 2001 census of India, only 14,135 people reported Sanskrit as their native language [3] The
largest language that is not "scheduled" is Bhili (0.95%), followed by Gondi (0.27%), Kumaoni (0.21%), Tulu
(0.17%) and Kurukh (0.10%).
India has a Greenberg's diversity index of 0.914, i.e. two people selected at random from the country will have
different native languages in 91.4% of cases.[4]

List of languages by number of native speakers

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Ordered by number of speakers as first language. Indian population in 1991 exhibited 19.4% of bilingualism
and 7.2% of trilingualism, so that the total percentage of "native languages" is at about 127%.

More than one million speakers

The 2001 census recorded 29 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).

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Table: Ordered by number of native speakers

Rank

Language

2001 census[5]

1991 census[6]

Encarta 2007 estimate[7]

(total population 1,028,610,328 )

(total population 838,583,988)

(worldwide speakers)

Speakers

Percentage

Speakers

Percentage

Speakers

Hindi[8]

422,048,642 41.1%

329,518,087 39.29%

366 M

Bengali

83,369,769 8.11%

69,595,738 8.30%

207 M

Telugu

74,002,856 7.19%

66,017,615 7.87%

69.7 M

Marathi

71,936,894 6.99%

62,481,681 7.45%

68.0 M

Tamil

60,793,814 5.91%

53,006,368 6.32%

66.0 M

Urdu

51,536,111

5.01%

43,406,932 5.18%

60.3 M

Gujarati

46,091,617 4.48%

40,673,814 4.85%

46.1 M

Kannada

37,924,011 3.69%

32,753,676 3.91%

35.3 M

Malayalam

33,066,392 3.21%

30,377,176 3.62%

35.7 M

10

Odia

33,017,446 3.21%

28,061,313 3.35%

32.3 M

11

Punjabi

29,102,477 2.83%

23,378,744 2.79%

57.1 M

12

Assamese

13,168,484 1.28%

13,079,696 1.56%

15.4 M

13

Maithili

12,179,122 1.18%

7,766,921

0.926%

24.2 M

14

Bhili/Bhilodi

9,582,957

0.93%

15

Santali

6,469,600

0.63%

5,216,325

0.622%

16

Kashmiri

5,527,698

0.54%

17

Nepali

2,871,749

0.28%

2,076,645

0.248%

16.1 M

18

Gondi

2,713,790

0.26%

19

Sindhi

2,535,485

0.25%

2,122,848

0.253%

19.7 M

20

Konkani

2,489,015

0.24%

1,760,607

0.210%

21

Dogri

2,282,589

0.22%

22

Khandeshi

2,075,258

0.21%

23

Kurukh

1,751,489

0.17%

24

Tulu

1,722,768

0.17%

25

Meitei/Manipuri 1,466,705*

0.14%

1,270,216

0.151%

26

Bodo

1,350,478

0.13%

1,221,881

0.146%

27

Khasi

1,128,575

0.11%

28

Mundari

1,061,352

0.103%

29

Ho

1,042,724

0.101%

* 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

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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

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Rank

Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_...

2001 census
Speakers Percentage

30

Kui

916,222

0.089%

31

Garo

889,479

0.086%

32

Tripuri

854,023

0.083%

33

Lushai/Mizo

674,756

0.066%

34

Halabi

593,443

0.058%

35

Korku

574,481

0.056%

36

Miri/Mishing

551,224

0.054%

37

Munda

469,357

0.046%

38

Karbi/Mikir

419,534

0.041%

39

Koya

362,070

0.035%

40

Ao

261,387

0.025%

41

Savara

252,519

0.025%

42

Konyak

248,109

0.024%

43

Kharia

239,608

0.023%

44

English

226,449

0.022%

45

Malto

224,926

0.022%

46

Nissi/Dafla

211,485

0.021%

47

Adi

198,462

0.019%

48

Thado

190,595

0.019%

49

Lotha

170,001

0.017%

50

Coorgi/Kodagu 166,187

0.016%

51

Rabha

164,770

0.016%

52

Tangkhul

142,035

0.014%

53

Kisan

141,088

0.014%

54

Angami

132,225

0.013%

55

Phom

122,508

0.012%

56

Kolami

121,855

0.012%

57

Khond/Kondh[9] 118,597

0.012%

58

Dimasa

111,961

0.011%

59

Ladakhi

104,618

0.010%

60

Sema

103,529

0.010%

List of mother tongues by number of speakers

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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. The
following table lists those mother tongues that have more than one million speakers. Per the General Notes from
the 2001 census: "Mother tongue is the language spoken in childhood by the persons mother to the person. If
the mother died in infancy, the language mainly spoken in the persons home in childhood will be the mother
tongue."[10]

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Rank

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_...

Mother tongues with more than one million speakers[5]

2001 census
Included
Mother tongue
in language
Speakers
Percentage

Hindi

257,919,635 25.071%

Bengali

82,462,437 8.016%

Telugu

73,817,148 7.176%

Marathi

71,701,478 6.970%

Tamil

60,655,813 5.896%

Urdu

51,533,954 5.009%

Gujarati

45,715,654 4.444%

Kannada

37,742,232 3.669%

Bhojpuri

33,099,497 3.217%

10

Malayalam

33,015,420 3.209%

11

Oriya

32,110,482 3.121%

12

Punjabi

28,152,794 2.737%

13

Rajasthani

18,355,613 1.784%

Hindi

14

Magadhi/Magahi

13,978,565 1.359%

Hindi

15

Chhattisgarhi

13,260,186 1.289%

Hindi

16

Assamese

12,778,735 1.242%

17

Maithili

12,178,673 1.184%

18

Haryanvi

7,997,192

0.777%

Hindi

19

Marwari

7,936,183

0.771%

Hindi

20

Santali

5,943,679

0.578%

21

Malvi

5,565,167

0.541%

22

Kashmiri

5,362,349

0.521%

23

Mewari

5,091,697

0.495%

Hindi

24

Khortha/Khotta

4,725,927

0.459%

Hindi

25

Bhili/Bhilodi

3,313,481

0.322%

26

Bundeli/Bundelkhan 3,072,147

0.299%

27

Nepali

2,867,922

0.279%

28

Bagheli/Baghel Khan 2,865,011

0.278%

Hindi

29

Pahari

2,832,825

0.275%

Hindi

30

Lamani/Lambadi

2,707,562

0.263%

Hindi

31

Awadhi

2,529,308

0.246%

Hindi

32

Wagdi

2,510,811

0.244%

Bhili

Hindi

Hindi

Hindi

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Rank

Mother tongue

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2001 census
Speakers

Percentage

Included
in language

33

Gondi

2,505,247

0.244%

34

Harauti

2,462,867

0.239%

35

Konkani

2,420,140

0.235%

36

Dogri

2,282,547

0.222%

37

Garhwali

2,267,314

0.220%

Hindi

38

Nimadi

2,148,146

0.209%

Hindi

39

Sadan/Sadri

2,044,776

0.199%

Hindi

40

Kumauni

2,003,783

0.195%

Hindi

41

Dhundhari

1,871,130

0.182%

Hindi

42

Ahirani

1,865,813

0.181%

Khandeshi

43

Kurukh/Oraon

1,737,044

0.169%

44

Tulu

1,720,422

0.167%

45

Sindhi

1,694,061

0.165%

46

Manipuri

1,466,497

0.143%

47

Surgujia

1,458,533

0.142%

Hindi

48

Bagri Rajasthani

1,434,123

0.139%

Hindi

49

Bodo/Boro

1,330,775

0.129%

50

Banjari

1,259,821

0.122%

Hindi

51

Nagpuria

1,242,586

0.121%

Hindi

52

Surjapuri

1,217,019

0.118%

Hindi

53

Kangri

1,122,843

0.109%

Hindi

54

Mundari

1,046,951

0.102%

55

Ho

1,037,987

0.101%

Hindi

See also
List of endangered languages in India

References
Notes
1. "Census dispels Hindi myth, only 25 pc in India claim Hindi is their mother tongue". IBNLive. Retrieved 13 October
2015.
2. In 1991, there were 90,000,000 "users" of English. (Census of India Indian Census (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/),
Issue 10, 2003, pp. 810, (Feature: Languages of West Bengal in Census and Surveys, Bilingualism and

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Trilingualism) and Tropf, Herbert S. 2004. India and its Languages (http://www.lilaproject.org
/docs/India%20and%20its%20Languages%20v1.0.pdf). Siemens AG, Munich.)
3. "COMPARATIVE SPEAKERS' STRENGTH OF SCHEDULED LANGUAGES -1971, 1981, 1991 AND 2001".
censusindia.gov. New Delhi, India: Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the
original on 2007-11-30. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
4. Paul, Lewis M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D. Fennig, eds. (2015). "Summary by country". Ethnologue:
Languages of the World (Eighteenth ed.). SIL International.
5. Abstract of speakers' strength of languages and mother tongues 2000 (http://www.censusindia.gov.in
/%28S%282scoev45b4mhlg45mz5jq345%29%29/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language
/Statement1.aspx), Census of India, 2001
6. Comparative Speaker's Strength of Scheduled Languages -1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 (http://www.censusindia.gov.in
/%28S%28z5ltjf55h4fqb4u2sybp3i55%29%29/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement5.aspx),
Census of India, 1991
7. "Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People Table MSN Encarta". Archived from the original on
2007-12-03.
8. includes Western Hindi apart from Urdu, Eastern Hindi, Bihari languages except for Maithili, the Rajasthani
languages, and the Pahari languages apart from Nepali and (in 2001) Dogri, whether or not the included varieties were
reported as "Hindi" or under their individual names.
9. different from Kui language
10. Census Data 2001 General Notes (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language
/gen_note.html)

General references
Data table of Census of India, 2001 (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001
/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm)
Language Maps from Central Institute of Indian Languages (http://www.ciil.org/languages/map4.html)
Scheduled Languages in descending order of speaker's strength 2001 (http://www.censusindia.gov.in
/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement4.htm)
Comparative ranking of scheduled languages in descending order of speaker's strength-1971, 1981, 1991
and 2001 (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language
/Statement6.htm)
Census data on Languages (http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online
/Language/data_on_language.html)

External links
"Major Indian Languages". Discover India. Archived from the original on 1 January 2007.
Ethnologue report (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=India)
Central Institute of Indian Languages (http://www.ciil.org/)
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