How fast are the world's languages disappearing?

The answer

Of the approximately 7,000 languages currently spoken worldwide, linguists estimate that one goes extinct roughly every two weeks, and up to 50% may vanish by the end of this century. Many endangered languages are spoken by small Indigenous communities and carry unique ecological knowledge, oral histories, and cultural practices that have no equivalent in dominant languages. UNESCO classifies about 2,500 languages as endangered, with 230 already extinct since 1950. Language revitalization efforts, such as those for Hawaiian and Welsh, have shown that decline can be reversed with sustained community and institutional support.