Indo-European · ISO 639-3 bho
Bhojpuri Language भोजपुरी
Bhojpuri is an Indo-European language spoken by about 52 million people in 3 countries. It is written in the Devanagari and Kaithi scripts.
Where Bhojpuri is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Bhojpuri language
Bhojpuri (भोजपुरी) is spoken by about 52 million people, which makes it the 34th most spoken language in the world — just behind Iranian Persian (53 million) and ahead of Min Nan Chinese (50 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Bhojpuric group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Bhojpuri spoken?
Bhojpuri is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in India (32 million), Nepal (2.1 million) and Mauritius (112,703).
Share of the population that speaks Bhojpuri: India 2.3% (32 million), Nepal 6.8% (2.1 million) and Mauritius 8.6% (112,703).
Bhojpuri is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Bhojpuri is written in the Devanagari and Kaithi scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Maithili, Magahi, Sadri, Sonha, Hindi, Urdu and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bho.
Frequently asked questions about Bhojpuri
How many people speak Bhojpuri?
Where is Bhojpuri spoken?
What language family does Bhojpuri belong to?
What is Bhojpuri called in Bhojpuri?
Is Bhojpuri an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.