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is the go-to source for language research, analysis & decision-making

  • 5 million data points for 7,159 languages in 242 countries

  • 2,500 expert data contributors with 1,000s of annual updates

  • 15,000 citations in Google Scholar + 100s of media citations

  • 70+ years in linguistics, architect of EGIDS and DLS language scales

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  • Datavis, datasets and data science from our ‘Derivation’ team.

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  • Explore the World

  • Demographics

    7.683 billion people

    7,159 living languages

    430 million deaf

    87% literate

  • Global Language Vitality Count

    Indigenous Language Vitality Count Bar chart showing vitality levels of indigenous languages.
    Details

    This graph shows the profile of languages in the world with respect to their level of language vitality.

    • Institutional — The language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community.
    • Stable — The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
    • Endangered — It is no longer the norm that children learn and use this language.
    • Extinct - The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language.

    These four summary levels have been derived by grouping levels in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which is the more fine-grained scale that Ethnologue uses to assess the status of every language in terms of development versus endangerment; see Language Status for a description of the levels of that scale. See also the pages on Development and Endangerment for more discussion.

Articles

  • How do we classify and measure the status of languages?

    In similar fashion to the natural kingdom, where plant and animal species range from abundant to endangered, languages are also classified as stronger or weaker using different scales. One important dimension is language status, classified using the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale.

  • What is the Digital Language Divide?

    In the era of the Internet and global communications, immeasurable amounts of digital information are being created, shared, and consumed. For billions of people, this means instant access to health information, education, career opportunities, news, social interaction, entertainment, communication tools, and digital content of every conceivable kind.

  • What countries have the most endangered languages?

    Global language loss on a catastrophic scale is increasing in likelihood, with vulnerable language numbers rising in every continent, every country, and every corner of the world. Indeed, 3,078 of the world’s 7,168 living languages (Ethnologue, 27th Edition) are now classified as Endangered, 100s of which face the very real threat of extinction within a few decades if no action is taken.

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