Indo-European · ISO 639-3 kas · ks
Kashmiri Language كٲشُر
Kashmiri is an Indo-European language spoken by about 6.9 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Perso-Arabic, Devanagari and Latin scripts.
Where Kashmiri is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Kashmiri language
Kashmiri (كٲشُر) is spoken by about 6.9 million people, which makes it the 156th most spoken language in the world — just behind Varhadi-Nagpuri (7.0 million) and ahead of Armenian (6.7 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Kashmiric group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Kashmiri spoken?
Kashmiri is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in India (5.8 million) and Pakistan (174,131).
Share of the population that speaks Kashmiri: India 0.4% (5.8 million) and Pakistan <0.1% (174,131).
Kashmiri is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in India.
Writing system and status
Kashmiri is written in the Perso-Arabic, Devanagari, Latin and 1 more 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 Dogri, Kangri, Mandeali, Mahasu Pahari, Hindi, Bengali and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ks, ISO 639-3 kas.
Frequently asked questions about Kashmiri
How many people speak Kashmiri?
Where is Kashmiri spoken?
What language family does Kashmiri belong to?
What is Kashmiri called in Kashmiri?
Is Kashmiri 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.