Top 10 most used Sign Languages (2025)
The most used Sign Languages in 2025
Sign languages are used by tens of millions of individuals around the world. According to Ethnologue.com, there are 160 living sign languages with ISO-639-3 codes, representing around 24 million first language speakers (‘L1’). Sign languages range in size from very small languages (e.g., Kufr Qassem Sign Language with approximately 50 users) to very large languages (e.g., Indian Sign Language with 6+ million users).
In 2017, the UN General Assembly passed resolution A/RES/72/16 to recognise the 23rd of September as the International Day of Sign Languages. Since then, the event has celebrated a different annual theme to promote ‘hearing and signing awareness’ as part of the International Week of the Deaf. The theme for International Day of Sign Languages in 2024 was “Sign up for Sign Language Rights' and previous themes include “A World Where Deaf People Everywhere Can Sign Anywhere!” (2023) and “Sign Languages Unite Us!” (2022)
This infographic presents the current global landscape of sign languages with statistics for the Top 10 sign languages. The images of the 1-10 numbers are presented as ‘signs’ using Mexican Sign Language. The infographic is designed to educate and inform people about the scale of global sign language usage, and advocate for urgent action to protect and preserve sign languages.