List of sign languages by number of native signers

The following are sign languages reported to be used by at least 10,000 people. Additional languages, such as Chinese Sign Language, are likely to have more signers, but no data is available. Estimates for sign language use are very crude, and definitions of what counts as proficiency are varied. For most sign languages, there are no concrete estimates. For instance, it has been reported there are a million signers in Ethiopia, but there are only a fifth that number of deaf people, less than half of whom are fluent in sign, and in addition it is unknown how many different sign languages they use.

Language	Family or origin	Legal recognition and where spoken natively by significant population	Ethnologue estimate
Indo-Pakistani Sign Language	Related to Nepalese Sign Language and possibly others in south Asia	No legal recognition. Native to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh	6,300,000 (2019)
Chinese Sign Language	Independent language family; not related to other sign language families	Legally recognized by China	4,000,000 (2021)
Indonesian Sign Language	Based on French Sign Language family	Native to Indonesia	900,000 (2016)[1]
Russian Sign Language	French Sign Language family	Native to Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania	715,000 (2014)[2]
Brazilian Sign Language	French Sign Language family	Legally recognized by law (10.436) in Brazil, on April 24, 2002[3]	600,000 (2019)
Spanish Sign Language	possibly French Sign Language family, according to others Language isolate	Officially recognized by Spanish Government. Native to Spain except Catalonia and Valencia	523,000 (2017)
Egyptian Sign Language	Arab sign-language family	Native to Egypt	474,000 (2014)[4]
American Sign Language	Old French Sign Language and Martha's Vineyard Sign Language	Native to the United States and Anglophone Canada	459,850[5]
Persian Sign Language	Language isolate	Native to Iran	325,000 (2019)[6]
Turkish Sign Language	from Ottoman Sign Language	Native to Turkey	300,000 (2019)[7]
Japanese Sign Language	JSL Family	Native to Japan.	126,000 (2019)
Mexican Sign Language	French Sign Language family	Native to Urban Mexico.	130,000 (2010 projection)
French Sign Language	French Sign Language family. Descended from Old French Sign Language	Native to France. Spoken in Switzerland, Mali, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Togo, Vietnam	100,000 (2019)
German Sign Language	German Sign Language family	Native to Germany	80,000 (2014)
British Sign Language	BANZSL	Native to United Kingdom.	80,000 (2014)
Malaysian Sign Language	French: ASL	Native to Malaysia	60,000 (2013)
Polish Sign Language	German Sign Language family	Native to Poland.	38,000 to 50,000 (2014)
Italian Sign Language	French Sign Language family	Officially Recognized language in Sicily. Native to Italy	40,000 (2014)
New Zealand Sign Language	BANZSL	An official language of New Zealand since 2006	23,000 (2018 census)[8]
Yugoslav Sign Language	French: Austro-Hungarian	Native to Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia	22,000 (2010-2014)
Uruguayan Sign Language	French Sign Language family	Legally recognized in Uruguay since 2001 under Law 17.378.[9][10]	20,000 (2019)[11]
Hong Kong Sign Language	Chinese	Native to Hong Kong	20,000 (2007)
Dutch Sign Language	French	Native to Netherlands	15,000 (2019)
Auslan	BANZSL	Native to Australia	10,000 (2016 census)

See also

• List of sign languages
• List of languages by number of native speakers

References

1. "Indonesian Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
2. "Russian Sign Language". Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
3. Lei 10.436 de 24 de abril de 2002 Archived 2010-09-10 at the Wayback Machine (in Portuguese)
4. "Egyptian Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
5. "American Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
6. "Iranian Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
7. "Turkish Sign Language". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
8. "2018 Census totals by topic – national highlights (updated)". Stats NZ. 30 April 2020. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
9. Meyers, Stephen; Lockwood, Elizabeth (2014-12-06). "The Tale of Two Civil Societies: Comparing disability rights movements in Nicaragua and Uruguay". Disability Studies Quarterly. 34 (4). doi:10.18061/dsq.v34i4.3845. ISSN 2159-8371. Archived from the original on 2022-06-27. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
10. "Ley N° 17378". www.impo.com.uy. Archived from the original on 2022-05-20. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
11. Observador, El. "Lengua de señas en Uruguay: cómo es, dónde se estudia y en qué programas se incluirá". El Observador. Archived from the original on 2024-05-26. Retrieved 2021-06-08.