List of official languages by institution
This is a list of official languages for major international and regional institutions. Different organizations sometimes refer to their principal languages of administration and communication as "working languages", while others refer to these as being "official". No distinction is made here, except where an organization itself, distinguishes between its official and working languages.
English and French are often regarded as the symbolic official languages, although the former has gained prominence in recent years.
International
According to a recent study of multilingualism in 13 major international organizations, English an official language in almost all. This is followed by French ; Spanish ; and Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. Interpretation is offered in Japanese and German as well for 2 organizations.The six official languages of the United Nations reflects the languages of the permanent members of the Security Council, in addition to Arabic and Spanish. Another study found that the percentage of each language used at each United Nations meeting in 2010 was distributed as follows: English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese.
The following is a list of major international and inter-governmental organizations.
| Institutions | Languages |
| Antarctic Treaty Secretariat | English, French, Spanish, and Russian. |
| Bank for International Settlements | English, French, German, and Spanish. |
| Commonwealth of Nations | English |
| International Criminal Court | Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. |
| International Criminal Police Organisation | Arabic, English, French and Spanish. |
| International Energy Agency | English and French |
| International Federation of Journalists | English, French and Spanish. |
| International Labour Organization | English, French and Spanish. |
| International Monetary Fund | English. |
| International Olympic Committee | French and English. |
| International Organization for Standardization | English, French and Russian. |
| International Telecommunication Union | English, French and Spanish. |
| International Union for Conservation of Nature | English, French and Spanish. |
| Inter-Parliamentary Union | French and English |
| Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | English and French. |
| Organization of Ibero-American States | Spanish and Portuguese. |
| Organisation of Islamic Cooperation | Arabic, English and French. |
| Trans-Pacific Partnership | Spanish. |
| United Nations | Under the Charter, the official languages are Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish as well as Arabic which was added in 1973.''See also: Official languages of the United Nations. |
| Universal Postal Union | French and English. Other languages translated: Arabic, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. |
| World Bank | English |
| World Customs Organization | English, French, and Spanish. |
| World Hindi Secretariat | Hindi |
| World Health Organization | Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. |
| World Trade Organization | English, French and Spanish. |
Regional
The following is a list of major regional organizations.| Institutions | Languages |
| African Development Bank | English, French |
| African Union | Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. See also: Languages of the African Union |
| Greater Arab Free Trade Area | Arabic |
| Arab League | Arabic |
| Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation | English |
| Asian Development Bank | English |
| Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank | English |
| Association of Southeast Asian Nations | English, Burmese, Filipino, Indonesian, Khmer, Lao, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, Thai and Vietnamese. |
| Benelux | Dutch and French. |
| Caribbean Community | English, French, Dutch and Spanish. |
| Caribbean Development Bank | English |
| Central American Common Market | Spanish |
| Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa | English, French and Portuguese. |
| Commonwealth of Independent States | Russian |
| Community of Portuguese Language Countries | Portuguese |
| Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf | Arabic |
| Council of Europe | English and French. |
| East African Community | English, French and Swahili. |
| Economic Community of West African States | English, French and Portuguese. |
| Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa | French, Portuguese and Spanish. |
| Eurasian Development Bank | Russian |
| Eurasian Economic Union | Russian |
| European Space Agency | English, French and German. |
| European Union | English, French and German of some internal EU bodies, such as the European Commission. See also: Languages of the European Union |
| Group of Seven, formerly the Group of Eight | English, French, German, Italian, and Japanese |
| Gulf Cooperation Council | Arabic |
| Indian Ocean Rim Association | English |
| Islamic Development Bank | French |
| Francophonie | Arabic, with French and English as working languages. |
| Mercosur | Portuguese and Spanish. |
| New Development Bank | English |
| Nordic Investment Bank | English |
| North American Free Trade Agreement | English, Spanish and French. |
| Nordic Council | Danish, Norwegian and Swedish |
| North Atlantic Treaty Organisation | English and French. |
| Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe | English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. |
| Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries | English |
| Organization of American States | Spanish, English, Portuguese and French. See also: The official languages of the Organization of American States |
| Pacific Islands Forum | English |
| Shanghai Cooperation Organisation | Chinese and Russian. |
| South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation | English |
| South Pacific Commission | English and French. |
| Southern African Development Community | English, French and Portuguese |
| Union of South American Nations | Dutch, English, Portuguese and Spanish. |