Official Languages by Country: Who Has the Most, and What 'Official' Means

"Official language" sounds like a simple label, but it means different things in different countries. In some it is a constitutional status that obliges the state to work in that language. In others it is a symbolic recognition, a regional right, or a policy set by the executive rather than by law. This guide ranks the countries with the most official languages and explains the main kinds of status.

Four kinds of language status

• Official (de jure): named in the constitution or a statute as a language of the state. Laws, courts and government services can or must use it.
• De facto: used by the government in practice without any law saying so. English in the United Kingdom is the standard example.
• National language: a symbol of national identity, which may or may not be official. Singapore's national language is Malay, which is one of its four official languages; Kenya's is Swahili, official alongside English.
• Regional or minority status: official in one part of the country, or protected for one community, such as Welsh in Wales or Inuktut in Nunavut.

Counts of "official languages" mix these categories, so two lists can disagree without either being wrong. The numbers below count languages named as official in national law.

Countries with the most official languages

Bolivia holds the record. Its 2009 Constitution made Spanish and 36 Indigenous languages official, and Beelad's Bolivia page gives the count of 37. Zimbabwe is second with 16, a list that includes sign language. Mali changed its rules in July 2023: Article 31 of the new constitution makes the national languages official and keeps French only as the "working language". The constitution does not list them; the figure of 13 is the number of national languages Mali already recognised. Two neighbours followed a similar path. Burkina Faso's constitutional revision of 30 December 2023 makes national languages official once a law designates them, with French and English as working languages, and Niger's Charte de la Refondation of March 2025 names Hausa as the national language and English and French as working languages. South Africa had 11 official languages from 1994 and added South African Sign Language in 2023 (the bill was signed on 19 July 2023), bringing the total to 12; see the South Africa page.

India: two Union languages, 22 scheduled ones

Article 343 of India's Constitution makes Hindi in Devanagari script the official language of the Union. English was meant to be phased out after 15 years, but the Official Languages Act 1963 lets it continue alongside Hindi. The Eighth Schedule lists 22 languages: 14 in 1950, then Sindhi (1967), Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali (1992), and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santali (2003). Scheduled status brings recognition and development support, while each state picks its own official languages. That is why Beelad's India page lists "Hindi and English (union government); 22 languages in the Eighth Schedule" rather than calling all 22 official.

Switzerland and Romansh

Switzerland has four national languages but treats them differently. Article 4 of the Federal Constitution names German, French, Italian and Romansh as national languages. Article 70 then sets the official ones.

The United States: English by executive order

For most of its history the United States had no official language at the federal level. Congress has never passed a law naming one, but more than 30 states have their own laws making English official, the oldest still listed being Nebraska's from 1920. Hawaii has had two official languages, English and Hawaiian, since 1978.

On 1 March 2025 the President signed Executive Order 14224, which states that "English is the official language of the United States". Three points matter for anyone who relies on services in another language:

1. It revoked Executive Order 13166 of 2000, which had required federal agencies to improve access for people with limited English proficiency, and told the Attorney General to rescind the guidance issued under it.
2. The order itself does not require agencies to stop offering documents or services in other languages and leaves that to each agency head. The follow-up has gone further. On 14 July 2025 the Attorney General's implementing memo told agencies to "minimize non-essential multilingual services", rescinded the Justice Department's earlier language-access guidance to funding recipients, asked that any translation state that English is the authoritative version, and suspended the federal LEP.gov website. On 10 December 2025 the Justice Department removed the disparate-impact provisions from its Title VI regulations. During 2025 and 2026 agencies including Treasury, HUD, DHS and Commerce withdrew or suspended their own language-access guidance or plans. What is still offered in other languages now varies by agency and program, so ask the office concerned.
3. It does not override statutes. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act still bars intentional national-origin discrimination in federally funded programs, and some program laws keep their own language rules. Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act still requires covered jurisdictions to provide election materials in certain minority languages (American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian and Spanish) where more than 10,000, or more than 5%, of voting-age citizens belong to one such group and have limited English, and that group's illiteracy rate is above the national rate. The Census Bureau publishes the list of covered jurisdictions; the current one dates from 8 December 2021.

Because it is an executive order, it can be changed by a later president, and it states that it creates no enforceable rights. Beelad's United States page lists English.

The United Kingdom: no official language at national level

The UK has no law that makes English official at the national level; it is the language of government by custom. Regional laws go further. The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 opens with "The Welsh language has official status in Wales". Gaelic and Scots have had official status in Scotland since 30 November 2025 under the Scottish Languages Act 2025, and Northern Ireland recognised Irish and Ulster-Scots in 2022.

English itself is official in 58 sovereign states and 28 non-sovereign territories, by Wikipedia's count (a count that treats the US as de facto, since its status rests on an executive order), which is why it shows up so often on Beelad country pages. For the number of people who actually speak each language, see the most spoken languages in the world. Bolivia also appears in our guide to countries with more than one capital.

Key takeaways

• Bolivia has the most official languages (37), followed by Zimbabwe (16), Mali (13 national languages, official since 2023) and South Africa (12, since sign language was added in 2023).
• India's Union government works in Hindi and English. The 22 scheduled languages are recognised, not all official for the Union, and India has no national language.
• Romansh is a Swiss national language but official only in dealings with Romansh speakers.
• The US declared English official by Executive Order 14224 on 1 March 2025. It is not a statute. Federal agencies have since been told to cut "non-essential" multilingual services, while laws such as the Voting Rights Act still require some translated materials.
• "National" and "official" are different labels: Singapore's national language is Malay, but it has four official languages.