Indian languages by number of speakers (Census 2011)
All 22 scheduled languages of India by mother-tongue speakers in the 2011 Census, with 2001 figures, growth and a free CSV download.
Compiled by ElevateBox · Updated · Download CSV
Key findings
- Hindi is the mother tongue of 43.63% of Indians: 52,83,47,193 people.
- Hindi and Telugu together are the mother tongue of 50.33% of the population.
- 13 of the 22 scheduled languages have more than 10 million speakers each.
- The fastest-growing large languages from 2001 to 2011 were Hindi (25.2%), Kashmiri (23.0%), Gujarati (20.4%).
- Urdu (-1.5%) and Konkani (-9.3%) had fewer speakers in 2011 than in 2001.
- The languages ElevateBox calls in today (Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, plus English) are the mother tongue of 66.50% of Indians.
The 22 scheduled languages, 2011
| Rank | Language | Speakers, 2011 | Share | Speakers, 2001 | Growth | ElevateBox calls in it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hindi | 52,83,47,193 | 43.63% | 42,20,48,642 | 25.2% | native |
| 2 | Bengali | 9,72,37,669 | 8.03% | 8,31,93,311 | 16.9% | roadmap |
| 3 | Marathi | 8,30,26,680 | 6.86% | 7,19,36,894 | 15.4% | supported |
| 4 | Telugu | 8,11,27,740 | 6.70% | 7,40,02,856 | 9.6% | native |
| 5 | Tamil | 6,90,26,881 | 5.70% | 6,07,93,814 | 13.5% | supported |
| 6 | Gujarati | 5,54,92,554 | 4.58% | 4,60,91,617 | 20.4% | roadmap |
| 7 | Urdu | 5,07,72,631 | 4.19% | 5,15,36,111 | -1.5% | not yet |
| 8 | Kannada | 4,37,06,512 | 3.61% | 3,79,24,011 | 15.2% | supported |
| 9 | Odia | 3,75,21,324 | 3.10% | 3,30,17,446 | 13.6% | not yet |
| 10 | Malayalam | 3,48,38,819 | 2.88% | 3,30,66,392 | 5.4% | roadmap |
| 11 | Punjabi | 3,31,24,726 | 2.74% | 2,91,02,477 | 13.8% | roadmap |
| 12 | Assamese | 1,53,11,351 | 1.26% | 1,31,68,484 | 16.3% | not yet |
| 13 | Maithili | 1,35,83,464 | 1.12% | 1,21,79,122 | 11.5% | not yet |
| 14 | Santali | 73,68,192 | 0.61% | 64,69,600 | 13.9% | not yet |
| 15 | Kashmiri | 67,97,587 | 0.56% | 55,27,698 | 23.0% | not yet |
| 16 | Nepali | 29,26,168 | 0.24% | 28,71,749 | 1.9% | not yet |
| 17 | Sindhi | 27,72,264 | 0.23% | 25,35,485 | 9.3% | not yet |
| 18 | Dogri | 25,96,767 | 0.21% | 22,82,589 | 13.8% | not yet |
| 19 | Konkani | 22,56,502 | 0.19% | 24,89,015 | -9.3% | not yet |
| 20 | Manipuri | 17,61,079 | 0.15% | 14,66,705 | n/c | not yet |
| 21 | Bodo | 14,82,929 | 0.12% | 13,50,478 | 9.8% | not yet |
| 22 | Sanskrit | 24,821 | 0.002% | 14,135 | 75.6% | not yet |
n/c: not comparable. Manipuri: The 2001 figure excludes the Paomata, Mao-Maram and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district, Manipur.
Method and source
Speakers are people who returned the language as their mother tongue. The 2011 figures and shares are from Census of India 2011, Paper 1 of 2018: Language, India, States and Union Territories (Table C-16), Statements 4 and 5, published by the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India. Shares are of India's 2011 population of 1,21,08,54,977. Growth is computed by ElevateBox from the 2001 and 2011 figures in the same paper. Mother tongue is not the same as every language a person speaks: many Indians speak two or three, which is why business calls switch languages mid-sentence.
How to cite
Free to use with a link to this page: "Indian languages by number of speakers (Census 2011), ElevateBox, from Census of India 2011 data". For what these languages mean for calling customers, see the AI voice agent landscape.