Indo-European · ISO 639-3 hin · hi
Hindi Language हिन्दी
Hindi is an Indo-European language spoken by about 544 million people in 7 countries. It is an official language of India. It is written in the Devanagari and Latin scripts.
Where Hindi is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Hindi
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Indo-Aryan
- Middle-Modern Indo-Aryan
- Continental Indo-Aryan
- Midlands Indo-Aryan
- Shaurasenic
- Indo-Aryan Central zone
- Western Hindi
- Hindustani
- Hindi
Writing system
Devanagari and Latin scripts
Related languages
About the Hindi language
Hindi (हिन्दी) is spoken by about 544 million people, which makes it the 3rd most spoken language in the world — just behind English (1.27 billion) and ahead of Spanish (485 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Hindustani group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Hindi spoken?
Hindi is used in 7 countries. The largest communities live in India (578 million), South Africa (1.2 million), Canada (814,690), Fiji (418,708) and Nepal (130,714).
Share of the population that speaks Hindi: India 41% (578 million), South Africa 2% (1.2 million), Canada 2.1% (814,690), Fiji 44% (418,708), Nepal 0.4% (130,714) and New Zealand 1.5% (77,418).
Hindi is an official language in 1 country: India.
Writing system and status
Hindi is written in the Devanagari 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 Urdu, Fiji Hindi, Haryanvi, Kanauji, Bundeli, Domari and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 hi, ISO 639-3 hin.
Frequently asked questions about Hindi
How many people speak Hindi?
Where is Hindi spoken?
In which countries is Hindi an official language?
What language family does Hindi belong to?
What is Hindi called in Hindi?
Is Hindi 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.