New report on Pakistan’s mother languages: Which language is spoken the most?

In Pakistan, Punjabi is the mother language of 88.9 million people, and Pashto is spoken as a first language by 43.6 million people. Meanwhile, Sindhi is the native language of 34.4 million people.

According  to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Saraiki is the mother tongue for 28.8 million people, and Urdu is spoken natively by over 22.2 million people. Additionally, Balochi is the mother tongue for 8.1 million people.

The Bureau of Statistics further reports that Hindko is the native language of 5.59 million people, Brahui is spoken by 2.78 million people, Kohistani by 1.04 million, and Kashmiri by 0.27 million people.

Furthermore, the Bureau states that Shina is the mother tongue of 116,000 people, Balti is spoken by 52,134 people, and Kalasha by 7,466 people. Other native languages in the country account for 3.37 million people.