How quickly are the world's languages going extinct?

The answer

Of approximately 7,168 living languages documented by Ethnologue in 2024, an estimated 43% are classified as endangered. UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger lists over 2,500 languages at risk. A language is considered dead when its last fluent speaker dies - this occurs roughly once every 14 days. The most at-risk regions include Australia (where 150 of 250 indigenous languages have been lost since colonization), the Americas, and parts of Asia. In 2022, the last fluent speaker of Yaghan in Chile, Cristina Calderon, passed away at 93. Conversely, languages like Hebrew and Hawaiian have been successfully revived through immersion programs, proving that determined communities can reverse language death.