Nigerian Pidgin is now the most spoken language in Africa, with 121 million speakers in 2025, according to new data from Ethnologue compiled by Visual Capitalist.
The ranking, which factors both first and second-language speakers, places Nigerian Pidgin 14th globally, ahead of widely spoken African languages like Egyptian Arabic, Hausa, and Swahili.
Although only about 5 million people speak Pidgin as a first language, a staggering 116 million use it as a second language — a sign of its rapid growth and widespread adoption as a lingua franca across Nigeria and West Africa.
Pidgin serves as a bridge language across Nigeria’s over 500 ethnic groups, and it is deeply embedded in media, entertainment, commerce, and informal day-to-day communication. It has also spread to neighbouring countries through trade and migration.
Hausa, another major West African language, ranks 19th globally with 94 million speakers — 58 million first-language and 36 million second-language users.
Globally, English retains the top spot with 1.5 billion total speakers, followed by Mandarin Chinese (1.2 billion) and Hindi (609 million).
English’s dominance is attributed to its 1.14 billion second-language users, highlighting its central role in global business, education, and digital communication.
The report also shows that languages with fewer native speakers, such as Swahili and Nigerian Pidgin, attain global relevance through widespread second-language use, a trend similar to English.
Experts say Pidgin’s growing influence is linked to increasing urbanisation, regional integration, and the global reach of Nigerian pop culture, particularly Afrobeats and Nollywood films, which have carried the language beyond Nigeria’s borders.
Despite its popularity, Pidgin has no official status in Nigeria and is rarely used in formal education, government policy, or legal documentation.
The top 25 list of global languages also includes Urdu, German, Japanese, Turkish, and Vietnamese.