Statistics about Bengali Speakers
- Official Language in the Indian state of West Bengal, where it is spoken by 83M people.
- National Language of Bangladesh, where it is spoken as a first language by 106M people and as a secondary language by another 20M.
- ~268M people speak Bengali worldwide
- ~229M as a first language
- ~39M as a secondary language
- ~108M people speak Bengali in India, ~9% of Indian population
- ~98M as a first language
- ~10M as a secondary language
Bengali is the #1 language in: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Tripura and West Bengal.
It is not a primary or secondary language in any other Indian state or territory.
Bengali Diaspora
Although not as a primary language (with the exception of Bangladesh), Bengali is spoken in many other nations:
- Bangladesh (126M speakers, 75% of the population)
- India (108M, 8%)
- Saudi Arabia (2.3M, 7%)
- UAE (1M, 2%)
- Kuwait (100k, 2%)
- Qatar (100k, 4%)
- Oman (100k, 2%)
- Bahrain (100k, 6%)
- Singapore (100K, 2%)
- Malaysia (500,000, 2%)
- Pakistan (2M, 1%)
- Japan (100K, <1%)
- South Korea (100K, <1%)
- Greece (100K, <1%)
- Spain (100K, <1%)
- Germany (100K, <1%)
- UK (800,000, 1%)
- USA (500,000, <1%)
- Canada (400,000, 1%)
- Italy (400,000, 1%)
Lutheran Study Bible Translation Project: Bengali Status
We need your help to finish this language. As you’ll see in the table at bottom of this page, all 66 books of the Bible have projected costs associated with them – this is the cost of completing the exhaustive 12-step process. Obviously, we’ve got a long way to go, but we are absolutely committed to finishing Bengali and the 14 other languages. Naturally, the timing is based on availability of resources and funding – but these will get done! Can you help us get there sooner?
See the Translation for Yourself
Bengali Progress Report
The table below shows the 66 books of the Lutheran Study Bible, as well as the approximate cost to complete each book’s 12-step translation process.
Note that we update our Bengali progress in this table quarterly.
