List of languages by the number of countries in which they are recognized as an official language

This is a ranking of languages by the number of sovereign countries in which they are de jure or de facto official.[1]

List
LanguageWorldAfricaAmericasAsiaEuropeOceaniaCountries
English5924164312United States, United Kingdom, Australia, India, South Africa (See the full list) [L 1]
French34252151France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Madagascar, Monaco, Haiti (See the full list)
Arabic23-25*11-13*-12--Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia (See the full list)
Spanish21218-1-Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Equatorial Guinea (See the full list)
Portuguese9-10*610-1*11Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, East Timor, Macau* (See the full list)
German6---6-Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein
Russian5-7*--23-5*-Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, South Ossetia*, Transnistria* (See the full list)
Swahili55----Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Serbo-Croatian4-5*---4-5*-Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo*
Italian4---4-Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City
Malay based4--4--Indonesia (known as Indonesian), Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei
Berber 3 3 - - - - Algeria, Morocco, Niger
Dutch3-1-2-Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname
Hindustani 3 - - - 2 1 Pakistan (Urdu), India (Hindi), Fiji (Hindi)
Persian3--3--Iran, Afghanistan (known as Dari), Tajikistan (known as Tajik)
Quechua3-3---Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador
Tamil3--3--Sri Lanka, Singapore, India
Tswana33----Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Sotho 33----South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe
Albanian2-3*---2-3*-Albania, Kosovo*, North Macedonia
Chinese2-3*--2-3*--China, Singapore, Taiwan*
Romanian 2-3* - - - 2-3* - Moldova, Romania, Transnistria*
Turkish 2-3* - - 2-3* - - Turkey, Cyprus, Northern Cyprus*

Several other languages are officially used in two countries, these are:

See also

Footnotes
  1. In the United States of America, English is the language of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and The Federalist Papers and remains the working language of the federal administration. At the state level, some states with large Hispanic populations—such as Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas—provide bilingual legislated notices and official documents in both Spanish and English. Attempts have been made to legislate English as the official language of the federal government of the United States, often imbued with nationalist sentiment such as the proposed English Language Unity Act of 2005 with its controversial ties to immigration policy, but these initiatives have not passed into law, despite an English-only movement whose long history includes: Pennsylvania of the 1750s concerning German; the decade of the 1800s in Louisiana concerning French; the 1890s concerning the use of the Hawaiian language in Hawaii; and from 1880 onward—now formally organized—more than a century of American Indian boarding schools suppressing the use of Native American indigenous language.

References
  1. Paronia, Amber. "The Most Popular Official Languages Of The World". World Atlas. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
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