Afro-Asiatic · ISO 639-3 heb · he
Hebrew Language עִבְרִית
Hebrew is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by about 9.3 million people in 1 country. It is an official language of Israel. It is written in the Hebrew and Latin scripts.
Where Hebrew is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Hebrew
Language family
- Afro-Asiatic
- Semitic
- West Semitic
- Central Semitic
- Northwest Semitic
- Canaanite
- Hebrewic
- Hebrew
Writing system
Hebrew and Latin scripts
Related languages
About the Hebrew language
Hebrew (עִבְרִית) is spoken by about 9.3 million people, which makes it the 130th most spoken language in the world — just behind Umbundu (9.4 million) and ahead of Central Kanuri (9.3 million). It belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family and, more precisely, to the Hebrewic group within the West Semitic branch.
Where is Hebrew spoken?
Hebrew is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Israel (9.4 million). More than half of the population speaks it in Israel — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Hebrew is an official language in 1 country: Israel.
Writing system and status
Hebrew is written in the Hebrew and Latin 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 Standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Sudanese Arabic, Moroccan Arabic and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 he, ISO 639-3 heb.
Frequently asked questions about Hebrew
How many people speak Hebrew?
Where is Hebrew spoken?
In which countries is Hebrew an official language?
What language family does Hebrew belong to?
What is Hebrew called in Hebrew?
Is Hebrew 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.