A guide to the most widely used languages in the UK

When thinking about languages in the UK, English usually springs to mind. It is by far the most widely used language and almost every British resident speaks English fluently. While often labelled a land of monoglots, as evidenced by only 31% of Brits being able to speak two or more languages, the country also boasts a linguistically rich landscape. So, which other languages are spoken in the UK?

Besides English, the UK is home to a further ten living native languages:

⦁    Welsh
⦁    Scots
⦁    Scottish Gaelic
⦁    Irish
⦁    Shelta
⦁    Angloromani
⦁    Cornish
⦁    British Sign Language
⦁    Irish Sign Language
⦁    Northern Irish Sign Language

In addition, more than 300 languages are spoken in UK schools, with English acting as an additional language for over 20% of primary schoolchildren to the one they use at home. But what are these languages? How did they come to be spoken in the UK? And which ones are the most widely used?

As our previous post already covers languages native to the UK, this article focuses on the top ten non-indigenous languages.

Eastern European languages come out on top

According to the latest census figures from 2021, Polish was the most common language spoken by those who do not use English as their main language. This means the West Slavic language remains in top spot, having also been the most widely spoken non-indigenous language at the time of the last census in 2011. With approximately 612,000 speakers, Polish is used by just over 1% of the UK’s population. The number of Poles in the UK grew significantly during and immediately after the Second World War, before experiencing a further spike following Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004.

The next most spoken non-native language in the UK is Romanian. Jumping from 19th place in 2011 to second position in the latest rankings, the Romanian-speaking population has increased sevenfold in this period to around 472,000 people. Similar to Poles, Romanians started migrating to the UK in steadily increasing numbers after their country joined the EU in 2007. Unlike Polish, Romanian belongs to the family of Romance languages that shares more commonalities with French and Spanish than the languages spoken by Romania’s immediate neighbours.

Languages of the Asian subcontinent continue to rank highly

The Romanian language’s rise since the 2011 census has knocked Punjabi down a place into third. Around 291,000 people speak Punjabi as their main language in the UK, with almost a third of those residing in the West Midlands. The Punjab region, which today straddles Pakistan and India, was a province of British India in colonial times. After the Second World War, the UK government encouraged Punjabi migration to combat labour shortages. Two decades later, Ugandan President Idi Amin ordered the expulsion of Asians, including Punjabis, from the East African country. Many found a new home in the UK, thus boosting the number of Punjabi speakers.

Urdu is the fourth most commonly used non-native language in the UK. In the 2021 census, approximately 270,000 people stated that they speak the Indo-Aryan language. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan and an official language of India. As was the case with Punjabi, the number of Urdu speakers in the UK grew exponentially in the post-war years due to migration – many new arrivals from the subcontinent filled labour shortfalls in the steel, textile and engineering industries.

With just under 200,000 speakers each, Bengali and Gujarati sit in eighth and ninth spot on the list. Migrants who spoke these languages came to the UK in growing numbers from the middle of the 20th century onwards for the economic reasons previously mentioned. Unlike Punjabi and Urdu, however, the amount of Bengali and Gujarati speakers has decreased since the last census, resulting in both languages dropping four positions in the rankings.

Top ten spots for southern European languages and Arabic

Moving up four places since the previous census, Portuguese is the fifth most common non-indigenous language in the UK with around 225,000 speakers. Meanwhile, its close neighbour Spanish, which is spoken by about 215,000 people, now occupies sixth place in the list. Fleeing religious persecution, Portuguese and Spanish Jews came to England in the 17th century, bringing with them the tradition of eating fried fish – later popularised and served with chips to create the classic British dish. Over the last few decades, migration from both countries has grown at an increasing rate, with the number of Portuguese and Spanish speakers almost doubling since 2011.

Another new entry into the top ten is Italian. The latest census figures show that around 160,000 people speak Italian in the UK. Approximately half of these speakers live in London, where Italians have become the most common foreign nationality in the capital. A small yet influential community of Italians flourished in England during the Renaissance period, preceding several minor waves of migration from Italy in the 18th and 19th centuries. After a lull in migration during the post-war years, the number of Italians moving to the UK is once again on the rise.

In seventh spot, Arabic completes the top ten with approximately 204,000 speakers. Arabic is the official language in most countries throughout North Africa and the Middle East, which is why this region is known as the Arab world. Since medieval times, England –and subsequently the UK – has maintained close economic ties with Arab states. With the first migrants arriving in the 1860s, Yemenis have the longest established Arab community in the UK that today totals around 80,000 people. In recent times, Arab migration to the UK has maintained a steady pace, as demonstrated by the number of Arabic speakers increasing by almost 30% in the last ten years alone.

The top ten non-native languages in the UK

To recap, here’s a rundown of the top ten non-indigenous languages in the UK with the approximate number of speakers:

1.    Polish (612,000)
2.    Romanian (472,000)
3.    Punjabi (291,000)
4.    Urdu (270,000)
5.    Portuguese (225,000)
6.    Spanish (215,000)
7.    Arabic (204,000)
8.    Bengali (199,000)
9.    Gujarati (189,000)
10.  Italian (160,000)

Our list merely scratches the surface when it comes to the many different languages and dialects spoken in the UK. Whether classified as indigenous or brought to British shores through migration, each language plays an important role in the UK’s history, culture and identity. 

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Daniel Gray

Daniel Gray is an editor and translator on Apostroph Germany’s English team. In his free time, he enjoys running, riding his bike or walking the dog in the Brandenburg countryside that surrounds his home.
Daniel Gray