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User:Dcoetzee/Speakers per articles on Wikipedia

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When asked why, say, the Croatian or Latvian Wikipedias have less articles than the English or German Wikipedias, the obvious answer is: not as many people speak those languages. One might ask then, is the number of native speakers per article relatively constant across projects?

The answer is "no", and it's interesting to compare which have more or less speakers per article. This could be one rough measure of the participation of a particular language community in their respective Wikipedia project, or perhaps of how inclusionist each project is. Often this factor is related to the economic state of a particular nation, or how widespread and affordable Internet access is there.

Following is a list, based on the List of Wikipedias table from meta, for all Wikipedias with at least a thousand articles. Two figures are given, one counting only native speakers and one counting all speakers (including those learning it as a secondary language), sorted by the number of native speakers per article.

Last updated: February 20, 2007

Language Language (local) Wiki Articles Native
speakers
Total
speakers
Native speakers
per article
Total speakers
per article
1 English English en 1 646 686 370M 1400M 225 850
2 German Deutsch de 544 627 95M 115M 174 211
3 French Français fr 446 995 113M 175M 252 391
4 Polish Polski pl 350 503 37M 50M 106 143
5 Japanese 日本語 ja 329 383 125M 130M 379 395
6 Dutch Nederlands nl 273 791 22M 22M 80 80
7 Italian Italiano it 261 644 40M 63M 153 241
8 Portuguese Português pt 240 309 200M 215M 832 894
9 Swedish Svenska sv 210 483 9.3M 9.3M 44 44
10 Spanish Español es 203 431 300M 400M 1474 1966
11 Russian Русский ru 136 660 147M 260M 1075 1902
12 Chinese 中文 zh 112 495 1.3B 1.3B 11600 11600
13 Finnish Suomi fi 101 313 5.2M 5.2M 51 51
14 Norwegian Norsk no 98 978 4.7M 4.7M 47 47
15 Esperanto Esperanto eo 66 941 1000 1M 0.015 15
16 Slovak Slovenčina sk 64 561 6M 6M 93 93
17 Czech Čeština cs 60 189 12M 12M 199 199
18 Danish Dansk da 57 704 5.5M 5.5M 95 95
19 Romanian Română ro 54 808 24M 28M 438 511
20 Catalan Català ca 53 771 7.5M 7.5M 139 139
21 Ukrainian Українська uk 53 418 39.4M 39.4M 738 738
22 Hebrew עברית he 52 986 7M 7M 132 132
23 Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia id 51 091 15M 200M 293 3910
24 Hungarian Magyar hu 50 921 13M 13M 255 255
25 Turkish Türkçe tr 46 285 59M 59M 1270 1270
26 Serbian Српски sr 42 358 12M 12M 283 283
27 Slovenian Slovenščina sl 40 212 2.2M 2.2M 55 55
28 Lithuanian Lietuvių lt 39 489 4M 4M 101 101
29 Bulgarian Български bg 35 755 9M 9M 252 252
30 Korean 한국어 ko 33 531 78M 78M 2326 2326
31 Cebuano Sinugboanong Binisaya ceb 32 512 20M 33M 615 1015
32 Estonian Eesti et 30 905 1.1M 1.1M 36 36
33 Croatian Hrvatski hr 27 699 6.2M 6.2M 224 224
34 Telugu తెలుగు te 26 460 70M 75M 2650 2830
35 Arabic العربية ar 24 852 300M 300M 12071 12071
36 Galician Galego gl 21 927 3.5M 3.5M 160 160
37 Nynorsk Nynorsk nn 20 408 4.7M 4.7M 230 230
38 Thai ไทย th 19 129 60M 60M 3140 3140
39 Greek Ελληνικά el 19 020 14M 14M 736 736
40 Persian فارسی fa 18 104 80M 120M 4420 6630
41 Malay Bahasa Melayu ms 17 652 25M 25M 1416 1416
42 Basque Euskara eu 16 645 700K 1M 42 60
43 Vietnamese Tiếng Việt vi 15 214 70M 80M 4600 5260
44 Bengali বাংলা bn 15 165 189M 230M 12500 15200
45 Ido Ido io 14 456 0 4000 0.277
47 Georgian ქართული ka 13 876 4.1M 4.1M 295 295
48 Bosnian Bosanski bs 13 535 2.7M 2.7M 199 199
49 Albanian Shqip sq 13 511 6M 6M 440 440
50 Icelandic Íslenska is 13 427 300K 300K 22 22
51 Luxembourgish Lëtzebuergesch lb 13 185 300K 300K 23 23
52 Neapolitan Nnapulitano nap 12 371 7.5M 7.5M 606 606
53 Bishnupriya Manipuri ইমার ঠার/বিষ্ণুপ্রি bpy 12 295 450K 450K 37 37
54 Breton Brezhoneg br 12 232 1M 1M 82 82
56 Lombard Lumbaart lmo 9 703 9M 9M 930 930
57 Macedonian Македонски mk 8 916 2M 2M 224 224
58 Serbo-Croatian Srpskohrvatski sh 8 835 17M 17M 1920 1920
59 Sundanese Basa Sunda su 8 535 27M 27M 3160 3160
60 Walloon Walon wa 8 510 600K 600K 70 70
61 Sicilian Sicilianu scn 8 237 4.8M 4.8M 583 583
62 Latvian Latviešu lv 8 131 1.4M 3.2M 172 394
63 Kurdish Kurdî / كوردی ku 7 963 30M 30M 3767 3767
64 Asturian Asturianu ast 7 871 100K 450K 12 57
65 Marathi मराठी mr 7 746 70M 90M 9040 11600
66 Hindi हिन्दी hi 7 650 490M 790M 64000 103000
67 Welsh Cymraeg cy 7 260 700K 700K 96 96
68 Newar / Nepal Bhasa नेपाल भाषा new 7 230 1M 1M 138 138
69 Occitan Occitan oc 7 128 1.9M 1.9M 266 266
70 Haitian Krèyol ayisyen ht 7 044 12M 12M 1703 1703
72 Tamil தமிழ் ta 7 011 62M 81M 8843 11553
73 Javanese Basa Jawa jv 6 627 75M 90M 11317 13580
74 Afrikaans Afrikaans af 6 430 16M 16M 2490 2490
75 Belarusian Беларуская be 6 320 4M 7M 633 1107
77 Tajik Тоҷикӣ tg 5 582 4.4M 4.4M 788 788
78 Tagalog Tagalog tl 5 573 24M 65M 4300 11600
79 Aragonese Aragonés an 5 412 10K 30K 1.8 5.5
80 Uzbek Ўзбек uz 5 355 21.5M 21.5M 4010 4010
81 Corsican Corsu co 5 315 100K 100K 19 19
82 Chuvash Чăваш cv 5 225 1.3M 1.3M 249 249
83 Azeri Azərbaycan az 4 764 25M 25M 5200 5200
84 Urdu اردو ur 4 669 61M 160M 13000 34300
85 Irish Gaelic Gaeilge ga 4 598 380K 380K 65 65
86 Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ kn 4 401 55M 64M 12500 14500
87 West Frisian Frysk fy 4 317 500K 620K 116 144
88 Low Saxon Plattdüütsch nds 4 283 1.5M 5M 350 1167
89 Scottish Gaelic Gàidhlig gd 4 273
90 Tatar Tatarça / Татарча tt 3 894
91 Venetian Vèneto vec 3 757
92 Piedmontese Piemontèis pms 3 639
93 Interlingua Interlingua ia 3 514
94 Yiddish ייִדיש yi 3 356
95 Swahili Kiswahili sw 3 136
96 Alemannic Alemannisch als 2 866
97 Amharic አማርኛ am 2 844
98 Limburgian Limburgs li 2 808
99 Armenian Հայերեն hy 2 717
100 Min Nan Bân-lâm-gú zh-min-nan 2 335
101 Kapampangan Kapampangan pam 2 310
102 Norman Nouormand/Normaund nrm 2 199
103 Ilokano Ilokano ilo 2 162
104 Faroese Føroyskt fo 2 150
105 Cantonese 粵語 zh-yue 2 132
106 Dutch Low Saxon Nedersaksisch nds-nl 2 100
107 Malayalam മലയാളം ml 2 088
108 Waray-Waray Winaray war 2 036
109 Sanskrit संस्कृतम् sa 2 025
110 Quechua Runa Simi qu 1 942
111 Franco-Provençal/Arpitan Arpitan frp 1 918
112 Scots Scots sco 1 802
113 Friulian Furlan fur 1 756
114 Ossetian Иронау os 1 655
115 Novial Novial nov 1 646
116 Volapük Volapük vo 1 637
117 Ligurian Líguru lij 1 546
118 Maltese bil-Malti mt 1 344
119 Cornish Kernewek/Karnuack kw 1 290
120 West Flemish West-Vloams vls 1 282
121 Pennsylvania German Deitsch pdc 1 276
122 Northern Sami Sámegiella se 1 196
123 Samogitian Žemaitėška bat-smg 1 117
124 Uyghur Oyghurque ug 1 111
125 Banyumasan Basa Banyumasan map-bms 1 096
126 Ladino Dzhudezmo lad 1 087
127 Yoruba Yorùbá yo 1 052
128 Zazaki Zazaki diq 1 052
129 Nahuatl Nahuatl nah 1 036
130 Voro Võro fiu-vro 1 032
131 Kashubian Kaszëbsczi csb 1 004