* No Official Census: There's no global census specifically counting Urdu speakers.
* Variations in Definition: Some consider Urdu and Hindi to be essentially the same language with different writing scripts. This makes it hard to distinguish speakers.
* Regional Differences: Urdu is spoken across many countries, including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and others, each with different levels of fluency and usage.
However, based on estimates from various sources, it's thought that approximately 600 million people worldwide speak Urdu, either as their first or second language.
This makes Urdu one of the most spoken languages in the world, ranking around 10th in terms of total speakers.