Most Spoken Languages in South Asia (February 2025) – UPDATED

South Asia comprises India Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Maldives.

The third-largest continent, also known as the Indian subcontinent, is home to more than 2.5 billion people who speak diverse languages. 

The most spoken languages in South Asia are Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Nepali, and Pashto.

South Asia is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world and has two main language families:

1. The Indo-Iranian languages

These are spoken in northern and western India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal as well as southern and western Sri Lanka.

Some languages spoken here are Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese, Baluchi, Nepali, Oriya, Panjabi, Pashto, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Sinhala, and Urdu.

 2. The Dravidian languages:

They are mostly spoken in southern, northern, and eastern Sri Lanka, eg: Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, and Tamil.

Some languages have disappeared from the continent whereas some like Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, and Marathi are currently growing at a fast rate.  

Most Spoken Languages of South Asia List

There are thousands of languages spoken in this region, however, in this guide, we have shared some of the most spoken languages of South Asia. 

The Hindustani language:

This is mainly spoken in the region of Northern India and Pakistan. It is a pluricentric language and has two standardized registers.

Modern Standard Hindi

This is widely spoken in India and currently holds the record of the world’s most spoken languages and 3rd most spoken language in the world.

Urdu

This is the official language of Pakistan and is also spoken in some Indian States. It is the 10th most spoken language in the world.

Bengali (Bangla) 

Bangla is the most spoken language in Bangladesh and India with 228 million L1 speakers and 37 million L2 speakers. 

Tamil

Tamil is spoken in South India and Sri Lanka and has 75 million native speakers and 8 million L2 speakers.

Telugu

Telugu is spoken by 84 million people in India and is considered to be one of the most popular languages across the globe.  

Marathi

Marathi is spoken by the Marathi people of Maharastra and is the 15th most widely spoken language in the world.  

Gujarati

Gujarati is spoken in one of India’s states, Gujarat, and is the 6th most spoken language in the country.

Punjabi

Punjabi is spoken by the people of Punjab and Pakistan and is one of the most widely spoken languages around the world.

English

Last but not least is English introduced in South Asia by the British Empire in the 17th century.

English is one of the most popular and frequently spoken languages in South Asia. It is the main source of instruction in Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Nepali, and Sri Lankan. 

There are many versions of English in South Asia as per the region. However, it looks like Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, and Marathi may soon surpass English in popularity.

Hope the post has been informative and helpful in discerning which is better.

Mohammed Omair

Hey! My name is Mohammed Omair, an avid Duolingo user behind Lingoly.io. I have been using Duolingo for more than two years to learn Arabic, Spanish, and Italian. While using it, I faced a bunch of issues, errors and problems that you might face as well while learning a new language on Duolingo. With that in mind, I created this website to make your journey as smooth as butter.

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