How many languages are spoken in Pakistan?

 Pakistan is a multilingual country with dozens of languages spoken as first languages. The majority of Pakistan's languages belong to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family.

Official	Urdu, English
National	Urdu
Main               Punjabi (38.78%);          Pashto (18.24%);			Sindhi (14.57%) ;      Saraiki (12.19%);       Urdu (7.08%)     Balochi (3.02%);  Hindko (2.24%);  Pahari-Pothwari;  Brahui
Signed	Pakistani Sign Language
Keyboard layout	QWERTY/Urdu keyboard

Urdu is the national language and the  lingua franca of Pakistan, and while sharing official status with English, it is the preferred and dominant language used for inter-communication between different ethnic groups. Numerous regional languages are spoken as first languages by Pakistan's various ethnolinguistic groups. Languages with more than a million speakers each include Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, Saraiki, Urdu,  Balochi, Hindko, Pahari-Pothwari and Brahui. There are approximately 60 local languages with fewer than a million speakers.  

Urdu

  Urdu (Nastaliq: اردو; /ˈʊərduː/; ALA-LC: Urdū) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, where it is also an official language alongside English. In India, Urdu is an Eighth Schedule language whose status and cultural heritage is recognized by the Constitution of India; it also has an official status in several Indian states. In Nepal, Urdu is a registered regional dialect and in South Africa it is a protected language in the constitution. It is also spoken as a minority language in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, with no official status.

Urdu
Standard Urdu
اردو
"Urdu" written in the Nastaliq calligraphic hand
Pronunciation	[ˈʊrduː]
Region	Pakistan (national, official and widely used lingua franca) India (as a minority in the Hindustani Belt & Deccan) Afghanistan (as a minority across the country) Nepal (as a minority in the Terai) Bangladesh (as a minority in Old Dhaka)
Speakers	Native: 70 million (2011–2018) L2: 160 million Total: 230 million
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central Zone Western Hindi Hindustani Urdu
Early forms	Shauraseni Prakrit Apabhraṃśa Old Hindi Hindustani Rekhta
Dialects	Deccani Dhakaiya Judeo-Urdu
Writing system	Perso-Arabic (Urdu alphabet) Urdu Braille Roman Urdu (unofficial) Hebrew (Judeo-Urdu - historical)
Signed forms	Indo-Pakistani Sign Language Signed Urdu
Official status
Official language in	Pakistan (national, official)  India (state-additional official) Jammu and Kashmir National Capital Territory of Delhi Bihar Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand Andhra Pradesh Telangana West Bengal
Recognised minority language in	South Africa (protected language)
Regulated by	National Language Promotion Department (Pakistan) National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (India)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ur
ISO 639-2	urd
ISO 639-3	urd
Glottolog	urdu1245
Linguasphere	59-AAF-q

Urdu has been described as a Persianised  register of the Hindustani language; Urdu and Hindi share a common Sanskrit- and Prakrit-derived vocabulary base, phonology, syntax, and grammar, making them mutually intelligible during colloquial communication. While formal Urdu draws literary, political, and technical vocabulary from Persian, formal Hindi draws these aspects from Sanskrit; consequently, the two languages' mutual intelligibility effectively decreases as the factor of formality increases.

In 1837, Urdu became an official language of the British East India Company, replacing Persian across northern India during Company rule; Persian had until this point served as the court language of various Indo-Islamic empires. Religious, social, and political factors arose during the European colonial period that advocated a distinction between Urdu and Hindi, leading to the Hindi–Urdu controversy.

Urdu became a literary language in the 18th century and two similar standard forms came into existence in Delhi and Lucknow. Since the partition of India in 1947, a third standard has arisen in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Deccani, an older form used in Deccan, became a court language of the Deccan sultanates by the 16th century.

According to 2022 estimates by Ethnologue, Urdu is the 10th-most widely spoken language in the world, with 230 million total speakers, including those who speak it as a second language.   

                          Punjabi

Punjabi (/pʌnˈdʒɑːbi/; پنجابی (Shahmukhi); ਪੰਜਾਬੀ   (Gurmukhi), Punjabi: [pəɲˈdʒab̆.bi] , sometimes spelled Panjabi, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Punjab region of Pakistan and India. It has approximately 113 million native speakers.

Punjabi is the most widely-spoken first language in Pakistan, with 80.5 million native speakers as per the 2017 census, and the 11th most widely-spoken in India, with 31.1 million native speakers, as per the 2011 census. The language is spoken among a significant overseas diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and the Gulf states. In Pakistan, Punjabi is written using the Shahmukhi alphabet, based on the Perso-Arabic script; in India, it is written using the Gurmukhi alphabet, based on the Indic scripts. Punjabi is unusual among the Indo-Aryan languages and the broader Indo-European language family in its usage of lexical tone.                           PASHTO Pashto (/ˈpʌʃtoʊ/,/ˈpæʃtoʊ/; پښتو, Pəx̌tó, [pəʂˈto, pʊxˈto, pəʃˈto, pəçˈto]) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (افغانی, Afghāni). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan alongside Dari, and it is the second-largest provincial language of Pakistan, spoken mainly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the northern districts of Balochistan.Likewise, it is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world. The total number of Pashto-speakers is at least 40 million, although some estimates place it as high as 60 million. Pashto is "one of the primary markers of ethnic identity" amongst Pashtuns. SINDHI Sindhi (English pronunciation: /ˈsɪndi/; Sindhi: سِنڌِي‎ (Perso-Arabic); (Devanagari): सिंधी; Sindhi pronunciation: [sɪndʱiː]) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, without any state-level official status. The main writing system is the Perso-Arabic script, which accounts for the majority of the Sindhi literature and is the only one currently used in Pakistan. In India, both the Perso-Arabic script and Devanagari are used. Sindhi Sindhī سِنڌِي‎ • सिंधी Sindhi written in Perso-Arabic script Native to Pakistan and India Region Sindh and neighbouring regions (e.g. Kutch and Balochistan) Ethnicity Sindhis Native speakers c. 32 million (2017) Language family Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Sindhic languages Sindhi Writing system Perso-Arabic (Naskh), Devanagari (India) and others Official status Official language in  Pakistan  Sindh  India Regulated by Sindhi Language Authority (Pakistan) National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language (India) Language codes ISO 639-1 sd ISO 639-2 snd ISO 639-3 snd Glottolog sind1272  Sindhi Linguasphere 59-AAF-f The proportion of people with Sindhi as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census Sindhi is not in the category of endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger This article contains Sindhi text, written from right to left with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined letters or other symbols instead of Sindhi script. Sindhi has an attested history from the 10thcentury CE. Sindhi was one of the first Indo-Aryan languages to encounter influence from Persian and Arabic following the Umayyad conquest in 712 CE. A substantial body of Sindhi literature developed during the Medieval period, the most famous of which is the religious and mystic poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai from the 18th century. Modern Sindhi was promoted under British rule beginning in 1843, which led to the current status of the language in independent Pakistan after 1947. Saraiki Saraiki ( سرائیکی Sarā'īkī; also spelt Siraiki, or Seraiki) is an Indo-Aryan language of the Lahnda group, spoken by 26 million people primarily in the south-western half of the province of Punjab in Pakistan. It was previously known as Multani, after its main dialect. Saraiki سرائیکی Saraiki in Shahmukhi script (Nastaʿlīq style) Native to Pakistan Region Punjab and neighbouring regions Ethnicity Saraiki Native speakers 26 million (2017) Language family Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Punjabic languages Lahnda Saraiki Writing system Perso-Arabic (Saraiki alphabet) Official status Regulated by No official regulation Language codes ISO 639-3 skr Glottolog sera1259 The proportion of people with Saraiki as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census Saraiki has partial mutual intelligibility with Standard Punjabi, and it shares with it a large portion of its vocabulary and morphology. At the same time in its phonology it is radically different (particularly in the lack of tones, the preservation of the voiced aspirates and the development of implosive consonants), and has important grammatical features in common with the Sindhi language spoken to the south. The Saraiki language identity arose in the 1960s, encompassing more narrow local earlier identities (like Multani, Derawi or Riasati), and distinguishing itself from broader ones like that of Punjabi. BALOCHI Balochi or Baluchi (بلۏچی) is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition, there are speakers in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Africa and in diaspora communities in other parts of the world. The total number of speakers, according to Ethnologue, is 8.8 million. Of these, 6.28 million are in Pakistan. Balochi بلۏچی Balòci Balòci (Balochi) written Balo-Rabi in Nastaliq style. Native to Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan Region Balochistan Ethnicity Baloch Native speakers 8.8 million (2017–2020) Language family Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern Balochi Writing system Balochi Standard Alphabet Official status Regulated by Balochi Academy, Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan Language codes ISO 639-2 bal ISO 639-3 bal – inclusive code Individual codes: bgp – Eastern Balochi bgn – Western Balochi bcc – Kachi dialect (Southern Balochi) Glottolog balo1260 Linguasphere 58-AAB-a > 58-AAB-aa (East Balochi) + 58-AAB-ab (West Balochi) + 58-AAB-ac (South Balochi) + 58-AAB-ad (Bashkardi) This article contains Balochi text, written from right to left with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Balochi letters or other symbols instead of Balochi script.  According to Brian Spooner, Literacy for most Baloch-speakers is not in Balochi, but in Urdu in Pakistan and Persian in Afghanistan and Iran. Even now very few Baloch read Balochi, in any of the countries, even though the alphabet in which it is printed is essentially identical to Persian and Urdu.  Balochi belongs to the Western Iranian subgroup, and its original homeland is suggested to be around the central Caspian region. HINDKO Hindko (ہندکو, romanized: Hindko, IPA: [ˈɦɪnd̪koː]) is a cover term for a diverse group of Lahnda dialects spoken by several million people of various ethnic backgrounds in several areas in northwestern Pakistan, primarily in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northwestern regions of Punjab. Hindko ہندکو Hindko in Shahmukhi Native to Pakistan Region Hazara Division, Peshawar, Kohat, Potohar Ethnicity Hindkowans and Hazarewal Native speakers 5–7 million (2017–2020) Language family Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Lahnda Hindko Dialects Peshawari Kohati Awankari, Ghebi, Chacchi Hazara Hindko Writing system Shahmukhi Language codes ISO 639-3 Either: hnd – Southern Hindko hno – Northern Hindko Glottolog hind1271 The proportion of people with Hindko as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census There is a nascent language movement, and in recent decades Hindko-speaking intellectuals have started promoting the view of Hindko as a separate language. There is a literary tradition based on Peshawari, the urban variety of Peshawar in the northwest, and another one based on the language of Abbottabad in the northeast.In the 2017 census of Pakistan, 5.1 million people declared their language to be Hindko, while a 2020 estimate placed the number of speakers at 7 million. Hindko to some extent is mutually intelligible with Punjabi and Saraiki, and has more affinities with the latter than with the former. Differences with other Punjabi varieties are more pronounced in the morphology and phonology than in the syntax. In a sense both Hindko, as well as other Lahnda varieties, and Standard Panjabi are "dialects" of a "Greater Punjabi" macrolanguage. The word Hindko, commonly used to refer to a number of Indo-Aryan dialects spoken in the neighbourhood of Pashto, likely originally meant "the Indian language" (in contrast to Pashto). An alternative local name for this language group is Hindki. A speaker of Hindko may be referred to as Hindki, Hindkun, or Hindkowan (Hindkuwan). Like other Lahnda varieties, Hindko is derived from the Shauraseni Prakrit. Pahari-Pothwari The Indo-Aryan language spoken on the Pothohar Plateau in the far north of Pakistani Punjab, as well as in most of Pakistan's Azad Kashmir and in western areas of India's Jammu and Kashmir, is known by a variety of names, the most common of which are Pahari (English: /pəˈhɑːri/; an ambiguous name also applied to unrelated languages of India and Pothwari (or Pothohari). Pahari-Pothwari پوٹھواری, پہاڑی Poṭhwārī, Pahāṛī Native to Pakistan, India Region Pothohar region, Azad Kashmir and western parts of Jammu and Kashmir, other parts of India including Punjab and Haryana (by partition refugees and descendants) Native speakers several million Language family Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Lahnda/Punjabic Pahari-Pothwari Writing system Shahmukhi Language codes ISO 639-3 phr Glottolog paha1251  Pahari Potwari The language is transitional between Hindko and Standard Punjabi and is mutually intelligible with both. There have been efforts at cultivation as a literary language, although a local standard has not been established yet. The Shahmukhi script is used to write the language, such as in the works of Punjabi poet Mian Muhammad Bakhsh. Grierson in his early 20th-century Linguistic Survey of India assigned it to a so-called "Northern cluster" of Lahnda (Western Punjabi), but this classification, as well as the validity of the Lahnda grouping in this case, have been called into question. In a sense both Pothwari, as well as other Lahnda varieties, and Standard Panjabi are "dialects" of a "Greater Punjabi" macrolanguage. Brahui language Brahui (/brəˈhuːi/; Brahui: براہوئی; also known as Brahvi or Brohi) is a Dravidian language spoken by some of the Brahui people. The language is spoken primarily in the central part of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan, with smaller communities of speakers scattered in parts of Iranian Baluchestan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan (around Merv) and by expatriate Brahui communities in Iraq, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.It is isolated from the nearest Dravidian-speaking neighbour population of South India by a distance of more than 1,500 kilometres (930 mi). The Kalat, Khuzdar, Mastung,  Quetta, Bolan, Nasirabad, Nushki, and Kharan districts of Balochistan Province are predominantly Brahui-speaking. Brahui براہوئی The word Brahui written in the Nastaliq script Pronunciation [bɾaːhuiː] Native to Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan Region Balochistan Ethnicity Brahui and Baloch Native speakers 2,640,000 in Pakistan (Total users in all countries 2,864,400) (2017 Census) Language family Dravidian Northern Brahui Writing system Perso-Arabic Script (Nastaʿlīq), Latin script Language codes ISO 639-3 brh Glottolog brah1256