Nigerian Pidgin Leads as Africa’s Most Spoken Language, Ranks 14th Globally

In a year where language continues to reflect global shifts in culture and communication, Nigerian Pidgin has emerged as Africa’s most spoken language in 2025, with an estimated 121 million speakers.

This data, compiled by Visual Capitalist from Ethnologue’s latest report, puts Nigerian Pidgin at number 14 on the list of the world’s most spoken languages, surpassing household names like Egyptian Arabic, Hausa, and Swahili.

What makes this even more remarkable is that only about 5 million people speak Pidgin as a first language. The remaining 116 million are second-language users, people who might speak Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, or other native tongues at home but switch to Pidgin in public, work, or digital spaces. 

This widespread secondary adoption is what has propelled the language to the global top ranks, even without formal recognition.

It is a language built from the streets

Nigerian Pidgin thrives where formality falls short. From market stalls in Lagos to radio stations in Port Harcourt, from Afrobeats lyrics to Nollywood scripts, Pidgin has become Nigeria’s most accessible bridge across its vast ethnic and linguistic landscape. 

It’s the language of the people used for jokes, deals, storytelling, and everyday survival.

Its spread is no longer limited to Nigeria’s borders. 

Thanks to regional trade, migration, and the explosion of Nigerian pop culture, Pidgin now travels with music, movies, and memes across West Africa and even into global diasporas.

How it is outpacing its rivals

While Hausa, another widely spoken Nigerian language, came in at 19th globally with 94 million speakers, Pidgin’s reach is clearly wider. Egyptian Arabic trails just behind Pidgin, with around 119 million speakers. 

Swahili often considered East Africa’s lingua franca, sits further down the list despite its official status in several countries.

The data also reveal a global pattern: languages like English, Hindi, and now Nigerian Pidgin derive much of their strength not from native speakers, but from how widely they are adopted as second languages. 

English, for instance, remains number one globally due to its massive base of second-language speakers, over 1.1 billion of them.

Pidgin is growing without status

Despite its popularity, Nigerian Pidgin still lacks official recognition. It isn’t taught in schools, used in government communication, or featured in formal documentation. 

Yet it remains an essential part of Nigeria’s identity, especially among the younger population who consume and create content in it daily.

Urbanisation, regional integration, and the global visibility of Nigerian creators have given Pidgin a momentum that official status couldn’t have provided on its own. It’s informal, but powerful.