Nigerian Pidgin has emerged as the most spoken language in Africa in 2025, boasting 121 million speakers, according to new data from Ethnologue compiled by Visual Capitalist.
The ranking, which includes both native and second-language speakers, places Nigerian Pidgin at 14th globally—surpassing Egyptian Arabic, Hausa, and Swahili. While only about 5 million people speak it as their first language, an estimated 116 million use it as a second language, making it one of Africa’s fastest-growing lingua francas.
Widely used across Nigeria’s various ethnic groups, Pidgin acts as a common language in informal settings, media, entertainment, and everyday commerce. Its influence has spread beyond Nigeria into neighboring West African countries, thanks to trade and migration.
Hausa, another prominent West African language spoken across Nigeria and Niger, ranks 19th globally with a combined 94 million speakers—58 million native and 36 million second-language users.
On the global stage, English leads the 2025 list with 1.5 billion speakers, followed by Mandarin Chinese with 1.2 billion and Hindi with 609 million. Although Mandarin and Spanish have large native speaker bases, English maintains its top position largely due to its 1.14 billion second-language users, reinforcing its dominance in business, education, and online communication.
The report highlights a growing trend where languages with relatively small native speaker populations, such as Nigerian Pidgin and Swahili, achieve high global rankings through widespread second-language use—similar to English.
Nigerian Pidgin’s rise is attributed to increasing urbanisation, regional commerce, and the global popularity of Nigerian pop culture, particularly through music and film, which have helped extend its reach internationally.
Despite its growing influence, Pidgin remains an informal language in Nigeria. It lacks official recognition and is rarely used in formal education or government affairs.
The top 25 global languages also include Urdu, German, Japanese, Turkish, and Vietnamese, reflecting how both population size and second-language adoption shape global language influence.
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