Language vitality
Vitality describes whether a language is being passed on to the next generation. The atlas uses UNESCO’s six-degree scale, from safe to extinct, and separately marks awakening languages – languages that Glottolog lists as extinct but that people are learning and using again. The data come from Glottolog and cover all 7,967 languages on the globe.
4,095 languages, or 51% of all languages on the globe, are endangered to some degree.
Degrees of vitality
- SafeSpoken by all generations; parents pass it on to their children without interruption.2,773
35% - VulnerableMost children speak it, but it may be restricted to certain domains, such as the home.1,566
20% - Definitely endangeredChildren no longer learn it at home as their mother tongue.1,801
23% - Severely endangeredIt is spoken by grandparents and older generations. Parents may understand it, but do not speak it to their children or among themselves.425
5.3% - Critically endangeredThe youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak it only partially and infrequently.303
3.8% - ExtinctThere are no living speakers left.953
12% - AwakeningIt lost its traditional native speakers, but people are learning it again and bringing it back to life. Glottolog classifies it as extinct.60
0.8% - No dataGlottolog gives no degree of endangerment for the language.86
1.1%
By world region
The regions are Glottolog’s macroareas. The bar shows the share of the region’s languages at each degree (colours as above).
| Region | Languages | Endangered | Extinct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 2,275 | 822 (36%) | 103 |
| New Guinea and the Pacific | 2,166 | 1,322 (61%) | 68 |
| Eurasia | 1,856 | 1,029 (55%) | 212 |
| North America | 707 | 436 (62%) | 162 |
| South America | 600 | 355 (59%) | 200 |
| Australia | 363 | 131 (36%) | 208 |
By language family
The fifteen largest language families in Glottolog (excluding isolates, sign languages and groupings that are not families).
| Family | Languages | Endangered | Extinct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic-Congo | 1,408 | 477 (34%) | 41 |
| Austronesian | 1,276 | 743 (58%) | 48 |
| Indo-European | 586 | 243 (41%) | 99 |
| Sino-Tibetan | 518 | 355 (69%) | 22 |
| Afro-Asiatic | 381 | 163 (43%) | 49 |
| Nuclear Trans New Guinea | 317 | 160 (50%) | 2 |
| Pama-Nyungan | 250 | 80 (32%) | 150 |
| Otomanguean | 181 | 144 (80%) | 6 |
| Austroasiatic | 158 | 100 (63%) | 4 |
| Tai-Kadai | 95 | 51 (54%) | 4 |
| Dravidian | 82 | 43 (52%) | 6 |
| Arawakan | 76 | 44 (58%) | 31 |
| Mande | 75 | 14 (19%) | 2 |
| Tupian | 70 | 50 (71%) | 19 |
| Uto-Aztecan | 69 | 42 (61%) | 11 |
Endangered languages in the atlas
- Ainu Critically endangered
- Cree Severely endangered
- Hawaiian Severely endangered
- Chamorro Definitely endangered
- Cherokee Definitely endangered
- Irish Definitely endangered
- Lakota Definitely endangered
- Māori Definitely endangered
- Mapudungun Definitely endangered
- Northern Sami Definitely endangered
- Rapa Nui Definitely endangered
- Sardinian Definitely endangered
- Scottish Gaelic Definitely endangered
- Abkhaz Vulnerable
- Aymara Vulnerable
- Basque Vulnerable
- Belarusian Vulnerable
- Catalan Vulnerable
- Chechen Vulnerable
- Dzongkha Vulnerable
- Faroese Vulnerable
- Greenlandic Vulnerable
- Inuktitut Vulnerable
- K'iche' Vulnerable
- Kurdish Vulnerable
- Latvian Vulnerable
- Luxembourgish Vulnerable
- Meitei (Manipuri) Vulnerable
- Nahuatl Vulnerable
- Ojibwe Vulnerable
- Ossetian Vulnerable
- Santali Vulnerable
- Slovak Vulnerable
- Tamazight (Berber) Vulnerable
- Ukrainian Vulnerable
- Welsh Vulnerable
- Yakut (Sakha) Vulnerable
- Zapotec Vulnerable
Awakening languages
There are 60 awakening languages. Glottolog classifies them as extinct, but people are learning and using them again. Glottolog does not treat this as a separate degree; the atlas recognises them from the note “Awakening” (Catalogue of Endangered Languages) or “Reawakening” (Ethnologue) that Glottolog carries over from the original source.
- Awabakal
- Banggarla
- Barbareño
- Biri
- Boruca
- Bunganditj
- Catawba
- Chitimacha
- Clallam
- Condamine-Upper Clarence Bandjalang
- Cornish
- Cupeño
- Dharumbal
- Dhurga
- Dyangadi
- Eyak
- Ganai
- Gros Ventre
- Hawkesbury
- Huron-Wyandot
- Iowa-Oto
- Kansa
- Kaurna
- Klamath-Modoc
- Lipan Apache
- Liv
- Luiseno-Juaneño
- Makah
- Manx
- Miami
- Narrinyeri
- Natchez
- Northern Lushootseed
- Osage
- Puri
- Quapaw
- San Francisco Bay Ohlone
- Serrano
- Sirayaic
- Southeastern Pomo
- Sydney
- Tolowa-Chetco
- Tongva
- Tübatulabal
- Tunica
- Umotína
- Wampanoag
- Wappo
- Warrongo
- Wathawurrung
- Wilson River (Grey Range)
- Wirangu
- Wiyot
- Woiwurrung-Thagungwurrung
- Xinca-Chiquimulilla
- Yagara-Jandai
- Yawuru
- Yorta Yorta
- Yurok
- Zire
Language stories: Languages coming back ›
Method and sources
The degrees follow the intergenerational transmission criterion in the UNESCO expert group document Language Vitality and Endangerment (2003). Their names and descriptions follow the Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (Moseley 2010), which adopted the scale and renamed two degrees (unsafe to vulnerable, definitively to definitely endangered).
Glottolog gives most languages an Agglomerated Endangerment Status (AES), compiled mainly from UNESCO, Ethnologue and the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ElCat). Each of its degrees corresponds to exactly one UNESCO degree: not endangered = safe, threatened = vulnerable, shifting = definitely endangered, moribund = severely endangered, nearly extinct = critically endangered, extinct = extinct.
The assessments date from different years and the sources sometimes disagree, so the degree is an indication rather than a precise measurement. The extinct languages include languages known only from historical records, such as Hittite and Sumerian, as well as Latin, which has no native speakers although it is still used as a second language (for example by the Holy See). 86 languages have no data. The Glottolog data were downloaded on 22 September 2026.
- UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages (2003): Language Vitality and Endangerment. Paris: UNESCO.
- Moseley, Christopher (ed.) (2010): Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. 3rd edn. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
- Hammarström, Harald; Castermans, Thom; Forkel, Robert; Verbeek, Kevin; Westenberg, Michel A.; Speckmann, Bettina (2018): Simultaneous Visualization of Language Endangerment and Language Description. Language Documentation & Conservation 12, 359–392. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24792
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2025): Glottolog 5.2.1. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.596479
- Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ElCat). University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. https://www.endangeredlanguages.com
- Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D. (eds.): Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: SIL International.