World Language Map

Languages spoken in Iraq

28 living languages are mapped in Iraq. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is Standard Arabic (68% of the population). They belong to 3 language families, the largest being Afro-Asiatic (15 languages).

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Iraq at a glance

  • 28living languages
  • 3language families
  • 42.1 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 7with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Iraq. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in Iraq

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
Standard ArabicAfro-Asiatic68%28,616,712Not endangered
EnglishIndo-European35%14,729,190Not endangered
Central KurdishIndo-European12%5,050,008Not endangered
Northern KurdishIndo-European10%4,208,340Threatened
North AzerbaijaniTurkic1.8%757,501Not endangered
Western FarsiIndo-European0.9%366,126Not endangered
Northern LuriIndo-European0.6%256,709Not endangered
Assyrian Neo-AramaicAfro-AsiaticShifting
BajelaniIndo-EuropeanThreatened
Chaldean Neo-AramaicAfro-AsiaticShifting
Gilit Mesopotamian ArabicAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
Gulf ArabicAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
GuraniIndo-EuropeanThreatened
HulauláAfro-AsiaticShifting
Judeo-Iraqi ArabicAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
Koy Sanjaq Jewish Neo-AramaicAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
Lishana DeniAfro-AsiaticShifting
Lishanid NoshanAfro-AsiaticMoribund
Lishán DidánAfro-AsiaticShifting
Najdi ArabicAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
Neo-MandaicAfro-AsiaticMoribund
North Mesopotamian ArabicAfro-AsiaticNot endangered
ShabakiIndo-EuropeanShifting
South AzerbaijaniTurkicNot endangered
Southern KurdishIndo-EuropeanThreatened
TurkishTurkicNot endangered
TurkmenTurkicNot endangered
TuroyoAfro-AsiaticThreatened

Read more: where is Standard Arabic spoken?

Language families in Iraq

About these numbers

The list of languages in Iraq comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Iraq

How many languages are spoken in Iraq?

28 living languages are mapped in Iraq, from 3 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Iraq?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Standard Arabic is spoken by 68% of the population, about 28,616,712 people, followed by English (35%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Iraq?

Afro-Asiatic (15 languages), Indo-European (9 languages) and Turkic (4 languages).

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