In brief
The largest documented number lives in Pakistan: 26,900 people in the 2023 census.
Official figures exist for 2 countries; together they add up to 40,700. This is not an estimate of the world total: the censuses were held in different years (2021-2023) and define belonging differently, and countries without such data are not counted.
Main language: Bengali. Glottolog classifies it in the Indo-European family.
Where they live: census figures
Each figure comes from the country's official census. Censuses define belonging differently (self-identification, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row.
Pakistan
26,900
Nepal
13,800
Sum across 2 countries40,700
Languages and their lineage
Bengali
- Indo-Europeanindo1319
- Classical Indo-Europeanclas1257
- Indo-Iranianindo1320
- Indo-Aryanindo1321
- Middle-Modern Indo-Aryanmidd1375
- Continental Indo-Aryancont1248
- Indo-Aryan Eastern zoneindo1323
- Oriya-Gauda-Kamrupaoriy1254
- Gauda-Kamrupagaud1237
- Gauda-Bangagaud1238
- Bengalibeng1280
People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.
Sources
- United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Pakistan, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
- United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). Demographic Yearbook, table 26: Population by national and/or ethnic group. Nepal, Census - de jure - complete tabulation, Final figure, complete. https://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=POP&f=tableCode%3a26%3bsexCode%3a0%3bareaCode%3a0%3bcountr…
- Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)