Over 13,000 updates have been made to the Ethnologue database since the 24th edition was released one year ago. As a result, the descriptions of 3,499 languages contain at least one update. These include both substantive changes to the data, as well as stylistic ones as we continually seek to improve the presentation of the data.

Not only are languages constantly changing, so is what we know about them. Therefore the total number of living languages in the world cannot be known precisely. That number changes as knowledge of the world’s languages improves. This edition lists a total of 7,151 living languages worldwide—a net increase of 12 living languages since the 24th edition of Ethnologue was published one year ago. This is the result of changes in the extinction status of some languages and of updating Ethnologue to keep it aligned with the ISO 639-3 inventory of languages. This edition drops 10 languages that were listed as living in the previous edition (4 being changed in status from living to extinct, 3 having been merged in the ISO standard into another language, and 3 having been removed because they were duplicates or could not be substantiated as ever having been a language). Conversely, 22 languages are newly listed as living (2 having been shifted in status from extinct to dormant, 5 being split from existing languages, and 15 having been added by the ISO standard as not being previously identified—8 of which are sign languages).

The special focus of the editorial team for this new edition has been on updating and improving the information on the use of languages in education. Previous editions have said simply “Taught in primary schools” or “Taught in secondary schools” without making a distinction between use as the language of instruction for the basic curriculum versus as a subject of instruction. The use of a language as one or the other is often limited to particular grade levels; such details were not previously reported. In preparation for this edition, we have consulted with SIL International’s global network of literacy and education specialists to significantly improve our information on language use in education. The statements now say “Taught in” versus “Taught as subject in” to distinguish between a language of instruction versus a subject of instruction. They also include details like “through grade 3” or “from grade 4” to indicate when the described use ends or begins. The current data indicate that 329 of the world’s languages are used as a language of basic curriculum, with an additional 391 being taught as a language subject.

This edition also incorporates a number of improvements to the language maps. These include the addition of new maps for Czechia and Hungary, and the enlargement of some of the maps for Brazil, Myanmar, Nepal, and Nigeria to show greater detail.