Census 2021 · 7 provinces

124 mother tongues.One country,every one counted.

नेपालका भाषाहरू

Every language Nepal's 2021 census recorded as a mother tongue: how many people speak it, how that changed since 2011, and where each figure comes from.

Explore all 124 See the scripts
Map of Nepal's seven provincesKoshiMadheshBagmatiGandakiLumbiniKarnaliSudurpashchim
Choose a province Province language breakdowns are being added from the census tables by province.Boundaries: Survey Department of Nepal via OCHA and geoBoundaries, CC BY 3.0 IGO
124
mother tongues recorded
officialNPHC 2021 (Regmi 2024; Kathmandu Post)
44.86%
speak Nepali as mother tongue
needs checkNPHC 2021 via Wikipedia
29,164,578
people counted
needs checkNPHC 2021 via Wikipedia
13
mother tongues new since 2011
disputedWikipedia and The Kathmandu Post give 13 new mother tongues; Regmi (2024) is reported to give 12. Not yet settled against the NSO report.

All 124, by speakersसबै १२४ मातृभाषा

Each name is sized by how many people gave it as their mother tongue in 2021. The small number is its rank. Choose any language to see its census figures.

Rank 1 of 124 · mother tongue

Nepali

Up 10.6% since 2011

needs checkNPHC 2021 and 2011, as reproduced on Wikipedia, "Languages of Nepal". Retrieved 2026-11-04.

Open Nepali
2011
11,826,953
2021
13,084,457
44.86% of Nepal's population in 2021

What changed since 2011२०६८ देखि के बदलियो

Mother-tongue speakers in 2021 against 2011, for languages with at least 50,000 speakers in both censuses. A fall can mean a shift to Nepali, migration, or people naming their language differently on the form, as with Doteli and Baitadeli.

Largest gains

Avadhi501,752 to 864,276 · +72.3%Bajhangi67,581 to 99,631 · +47.4%Bajjika793,416 to 1,133,764 · +42.9%Hindi77,569 to 98,399 · +26.9%Chamling76,800 to 89,037 · +15.9%Bhojpuri1,584,958 to 1,820,795 · +14.9%

Largest falls

Baitadeli272,524 to 152,666 · -44.0%Urdu691,546 to 413,785 · -40.2%Doteli787,827 to 494,864 · -37.2%Rai159,114 to 144,512 · -9.2%Achhami142,787 to 141,444 · -0.9%

needs checkNPHC 2021 and 2011, as reproduced on Wikipedia, "Languages of Nepal". Retrieved 2026-11-04.

Scriptsलिपि

Writing systems used for Nepal's languages. Each will get its own page: history, who writes it today, and whether it can be typed on a phone.

क
Devanagari देवनागरी
Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri and many more
ཀ
Tibetan
Himalayan languages
ᤁ
Limbu (Sirijanga)
Limbu
𑐎
Prachalit Nepal
Nepal Bhasa
𑒏
Tirhuta (Mithilakshar)
Maithili
A drawn specimen comes once Ranjana's Unicode status is confirmed.
Ranjana
needs check
ᱚ
Ol Chiki
Santali
Kaithi and others
More scripts
Historical and minority scripts