Approximately 258 to 260 million people worldwide speak Russian, making it one of the most spoken languages globally. Of these, around 153 to 160 million speak Russian as their first language, while about 100 to 120 million use it as a second language

. Russian is the seventh most spoken language by native speakers and ranks eighth by total number of speakers globally

. It is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and widely used as a lingua franca in many former Soviet states such as Ukraine, Estonia, and Moldova

. In Russia alone, about 138 million people have Russian language skills, with roughly 118 million native speakers

. Beyond Eastern Europe, significant Russian-speaking populations exist in the United States (around 975,000 speakers), Israel (about 1 million), and other countries including Germany, Canada, and Australia

. Thus, Russian remains a major global language with a broad geographic distribution, especially across Eurasia and parts of the former Soviet Union