Which language has the largest number of native speakers worldwide?

Mandarin Chinese has the largest number of native speakers worldwide.

Mandarin is a group of Chinese varieties spoken primarily in mainland China and Taiwan, with significant communities elsewhere. Standard Mandarin, based largely on the Beijing dialect, is the official language of China and Taiwan and one of Singapore’s official languages.

It is commonly estimated to have more than 900 million native speakers, although totals vary depending on whether closely related varieties are grouped together and how census data classify speakers. Mandarin uses tones, and Standard Mandarin is traditionally described as having four main tones plus a neutral tone.

English has more total speakers when second-language users are included. Spanish and Hindi also have very large native-speaking populations. Therefore, “most native speakers” and “most total speakers” are different rankings.