Official languages of the United Nations

The official languages of the United Nations, also known as the United Nations Official Languages (UNOL), are the six languages used in United Nations (UN) meetings and in which the UN writes all its official documents.^[1] In 1946, five languages were chosen as official languages of the UN: Chinese,^[2] English (British English with Oxford spelling),^[3] French, Russian, and Spanish. In 1973, (Modern Standard) Arabic was voted to be an additional official language. As of 2025, the Official Languages of the United Nations are:

English (British English with Oxford spelling) in English Latin alphabet
French (français métropolitain / langues d'oïl) in French Latin alphabet
Spanish (español / castellano) in Spanish Latin alphabet
Russian (русский / Московское произношение) in Cyrillic script
Chinese (Mandarin: Guānhuà (官话 / Pǔtōnghuà (普通话) in Simplified Chinese characters
Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic) (العربية) in Naskh / Arabic abjad

Even though according to the UN Charter each of these 6 are equally authoritative, English and French have traditionally received preferential status and the UN Secretariat mostly uses these two languages. It is an unspoken rule that the UN Secretary General must be at least C1 - Advanced fluency level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) in both English and French. The UN has struggled to provide parity of all 6 languages as English has become the dominant world language in the digital age.

Multiple UN Secretary Generals, including Kofi Annan and Ban Ki Moon and Antonio Guterres have worked to improve multilingualism within the UN. This work has culminated in additional funding for the UN Translation Service, the Coordinator for Multilingualism, UN Language Days, and starting in 2018, the UN News website providing translations into non-official languages such as Portuguese, Swahili, Hindi, and Urdu. These four languages are, along with Bengali and Indonesian, seen as frontrunners for expansion of the Official languages of the UN as they represent the Southern Hemisphere (Global South) with economic and population growth outpacing that of the tradition Western world. As of 2025, the United Nations and UNESCO has not formally ratified the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.

^ "Union Nation Official Languages". Archived from the original on 18 May 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
^ Universal Declaration of Human Rights: translation into Chinese. Title Universal Declaration of Human Rights: translation into Chinese {...} Language(s) 中文 (Chinese){...}Alternate names: Beifang Fangyan, Guanhua, Guoyu, Hanyu, Huayu, Mandarin, Northern Chinese, Putonghua, Standard Chinese, Zhongguohua, Zhongwen
^ "Spelling (United Nations Editorial Manual Online)". Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. Retrieved 29 July 2023. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, twelfth edition, is the current authority for spelling in the United Nations.

[1] "Union Nation Official Languages". Archived from the original on 18 May 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.

[2] Universal Declaration of Human Rights: translation into Chinese. Title Universal Declaration of Human Rights: translation into Chinese {...} Language(s) 中文 (Chinese){...}Alternate names: Beifang Fangyan, Guanhua, Guoyu, Hanyu, Huayu, Mandarin, Northern Chinese, Putonghua, Standard Chinese, Zhongguohua, Zhongwen

[3] "Spelling (United Nations Editorial Manual Online)". Department for General Assembly and Conference Management. Retrieved 29 July 2023. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, twelfth edition, is the current authority for spelling in the United Nations.

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