Austronesian · ISO 639-3 fil
Filipino Language
Filipino is an Austronesian language spoken by about 66 million people in 8 countries. It is an official language of Philippines. It is written in the Latin and Tagalog scripts.
Where Filipino is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Filipino
Language family
- Austronesian
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Greater Central Philippine
- Central Philippine
- Tagalogic
- Tagalog-Filipino
- Filipino
Writing system
Latin and Tagalog scripts
Related languages
About the Filipino language
Filipino is spoken by about 66 million people, which makes it the 28th most spoken language in the world — just behind Korean (77 million) and ahead of Italian (65 million). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Tagalog-Filipino group within the Greater Central Philippine branch.
Where is Filipino spoken?
Filipino is used in 8 countries. The largest communities live in Philippines (71 million), United States (1.4 million), Canada (775,896), Singapore (156,739) and Guam (42,213). More than half of the population speaks it in Philippines — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Filipino: Philippines 60% (71 million), United States 0.4% (1.4 million), Canada 2% (775,896), Singapore 2.6% (156,739), Guam 25% (42,213) and Macau 3.1% (19,977).
Filipino is an official language in 1 country: Philippines.
Writing system and status
Filipino is written in the Latin and Tagalog 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 Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray (Philippines), Central Bikol, Tausug and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 fil.
Frequently asked questions about Filipino
How many people speak Filipino?
Where is Filipino spoken?
In which countries is Filipino an official language?
What language family does Filipino belong to?
Is Filipino 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.