Though only about 5 million speak it as a first language, an estimated 116 million use it as a second language.
ABUJA — Nigerian Pidgin has emerged as Africa’s most widely spoken language, ranking 14th worldwide with more than 121 million speakers, according to new data from Ethnologue compiled by Visual Capitalist.
Though only about 5 million speak it as a first language, an estimated 116 million use it as a second language. Experts attribute its growth to urbanisation, regional trade, and the global reach of Nigerian entertainment, particularly Nollywood and Afrobeats.
Pidgin’s rise places it ahead of Egyptian Arabic, Hausa, and Swahili, cementing its role as a lingua franca across Nigeria and beyond.
“Despite its unofficial status, Pidgin is now widely adopted by news media, government, and traders,” the report noted.
English tops the global chart with 1.5 billion speakers, followed by Mandarin Chinese and Hindi.
Full list below
English, with 1.5 billion active speakers
Mandarin, with 1.1 billion active speakers
Hindi, with 609 million active speakers
Spanish, with 558 million active speakers
Standard Arabic, with 335 million active speakers
French, with 312 million active speakers
Bengali, with 284 million active speakers
Portuguese, with 267 million active speakers
Russian, with 253 million active speakers
Indonesia, with 252 million active speakers
Urdu, with 246 million active speakers
German, with 134 million active speakers
Japanese, with 126 million active speakers
Nigerian Pidgin, with 121 million active speakers
Egyptian Arabic, with 119 million active speakers
Marathi, with 99 million active speakers
Vietnamese, with 97 million active speakers
Telugu, with 96 million active speakers
Hausa, with 94 million active speakers
Turkish, with 91 million active speakers
Western Punjabi, with 90 million active speakers
Swahili, with 87 million active speakers
Tagalog, with 87 million active speakers
Tamil, with 86 million active speakers
Yue Chinese, with 86 million active speakers