You’re in the right place for more information about Esperanto!

This question is very common, and the only real answer is “no one knows.”  How many people speak English, or Thai, or Hungarian? How many people are vegetarians?  How many people golf or play chess? There’s no way to do a headcount—there can only be very rough estimates, since there is no membership required or even an easily countable must-have item.  In practice this means that the only languages for which you can accurately count speakers are small languages spoken in a limited area. 

Several decades ago The World Almanac and Book of Facts published the number “two million,” and that number got repeated in lots of other sources.  But those numbers are contested. 

Modern estimates of the number of actual speakers of Esperanto (not just people who have learned a few words or phrases) are in the range of 60,000-200,000.  If you include “people who have learned a little bit of Esperanto” in the definition of “speaker,” then the number is significantly higher. 

There are such things as “artificial languages,” languages that are made up from scratch and don’t have any connection to other languages.  One of the best known modern examples is probably Klingon.  There are languages like Loglan and Lojban that were designed to be purely logical, and are made up of arbitrary parts.  There was even an artificial language called “Solresol”, in which all the words were made up of the names of the notes in the musical scale (do, re, mi . . . ) ­­—with the idea that the language could be sung as well as spoken.

Esperanto is usually called a “constructed” language.  All the vocabulary comes from other languages (Latin/romance, German, and Slavic, primarily).  And the grammar, while simplified and regular, is not generally unlike that of other European languages.  There are similar parts of speech, similar ways of constructing sentences, and similar expressions.  So you have words like “frato” (brother), “baki” (to bake), “hundo” (dog), and expressions like “Bonan tagon!” (Good day!).  There are very few elements in Esperanto that are truly “artificial.” 

So yes, it’s a “real” language.  But it’s a language that was created in a deliberate way for a specific purpose, which makes it a little different from other languages you’re familiar with.

Some people learn Esperanto and read, write, and speak it as a kind of hobby.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  Doing something as a hobby simply means doing something because you’re interested in it.  Many people learn languages just because they’re interested in them. In fact, intense interest and enjoyment are usually required to learn any language—which is why so many people who were forced to learn a language in school don’t speak it well. And while collecting stamps or coins as a hobby gives you a big collection of stamps or coins, learning Esperanto gives you exposure to different cultures, literature you might never have encountered before, opportunities to meet interesting people, and even opportunities for travel and study.  

Esperanto is over 135 years old. The language was first introduced in 1887 with the publication of a small book titled Unua Libro (“First Book”) by L. L. Zamenhof, a Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist.

Since then, Esperanto has grown into a living language with its own literature, culture, music, and vibrant international community—proving that even after more than a century, it’s still very much alive and evolving.

Though you won’t find an official “country” of Esperanto, the language lives in clubs, cafés, online forums and at international congresses from every continent. Estimates put active speakers in the low six figures worldwide and many more with at least basic proficiency. Beyond reading and self-study, Esperanto’s true strength is its community: local meet-ups, summer courses, youth festivals and decades-old national associations keep the language alive in real time—whether you’re in a Paris salon, a São Paulo café or tuning into a Telegram chat from Tokyo.:

Europe

• Europe boast the largest clubs and congresses: Germany, Poland, Hungary, France, Italy, Spain.

• Major meet-ups in Berlin, Paris, Rome and regular weekend workshops in smaller towns.

The Americas

• United States & Canada: Many of the major cities (and smaller ones too!) have active Esperanto clubs and associations. For a list of those Esperanto-USA recognizes in the United States, visit our Community Page!

• Brazil & Mexico: strong communities in São Paulo, Rio, Mexico City—with annual national congresses and plentiful online study groups.

Asia

• Japan & China: national associations host summer courses (Japan’s JAEST and China’s CSE). Major cities like Tokyo, Shanghai and Guangzhou have extremely active clubs.

• South Korea, India & Taiwan each run regional festivals and weekly cafés.

Africa & Oceania

• Kenya, South Africa & Madagascar: vibrant youth chapters tied to TEJO, plus local radio programs in Madagascar.

• Australia & New Zealand: small but enthusiastic groups in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland—often linked to university Esperanto clubs.

While a few organizations and companies have used Esperanto—usually as a clever or eye-catching branding choice—it’s not common for businesses or institutions without direct ties to the Esperanto community to actually operate in Esperanto.

In most cases, Esperanto is used more as a symbolic gesture than a practical tool. For example, a company might include Esperanto in a logo, product name, or slogan to stand out as global-minded or unconventional. But it’s rare for non-Esperantist organizations to use the language seriously or to engage with the Esperanto-speaking world in a sustained way.

One notable exception is during the Universala Kongreso de Esperanto (World Esperanto Congress), which brings together hundreds or even thousands of speakers from around the world. In the host city, it’s not unusual to see Esperanto temporarily adopted by local restaurants, tourist centers, or event venues—appearing on menus, signage, or promotional materials. However, this tends to last only for the duration of the congress.

So while Esperanto is respected and occasionally embraced for its symbolic or cultural value, its practical use in mainstream business or organizational communication is still very limited—outside of Esperanto-speaking networks.

These phrases speak to the heart of L. L. Zamenhof’s original vision for Esperanto. Growing up in a multilingual, multicultural community in 19th-century Eastern Europe, Zamenhof witnessed firsthand how language differences often reinforced hostility, misunderstanding, and even violence between groups. He believed that if people had a shared, neutral second language—not to replace their own, but to supplement it—they might begin to see each other not as strangers or enemies, but as members of the same human family.

Calling Esperanto a language of peace reflects this ideal. It’s about more than just the absence of conflict; it’s about fostering mutual understanding, empathy, and friendship across cultural and national lines.

Esperanto is also described as a neutral language because it doesn’t belong to any one nation, government, or ethnic group. All national languages—like English, Mandarin, Arabic, or Russian—are tied to specific histories, cultures, and often geopolitical power. When those languages spread, they often do so through economic pressure, colonialism, or global dominance, making their use inherently unequal.

Esperanto offers an alternative. It was designed to be culturally inclusive, grammatically accessible, and politically neutral. Instead of privileging one group’s worldview, it invites speakers from all backgrounds to meet on more equal terms. It’s not about erasing differences—it’s about making space for all of them, without any one culture dominating the conversation.

So when people call Esperanto the language of peace or neutrality, they’re pointing to a vision of communication that builds bridges instead of barriers—an ambitious goal, perhaps, but one that has already brought together a global community of people who believe in that ideal.

No—Esperanto is not tied to any political ideology, including communism. Its purpose is to foster communication and understanding between people from different countries and cultures, regardless of their political beliefs. That said, its core idea—that people from all over the world should be able to connect and cooperate—is often seen as radical or threatening in closed or authoritarian societies.

Historically, Esperantists have been persecuted under regimes across the political spectrum.

• Under Nazi Germany, Esperantists—especially Jewish ones—were targeted, partly because of L. L. Zamenhof’s heritage and the language’s internationalist goals.

• In the Soviet Union, Esperanto was initially embraced as a tool for international solidarity, but under Stalin, it quickly became suspect. Its openness to foreign contact and free exchange of ideas made Esperantists vulnerable to imprisonment or even execution.

What Esperanto truly threatens is information control—it enables people to talk across borders, share uncensored perspectives, and build friendships beyond political narratives. That can be uncomfortable for regimes that depend on division or propaganda.

But Esperanto itself has no political platform. Within the community, you’ll find people from all walks of life and political beliefs—who regularly disagree, debate, and discuss ideas just like anywhere else. The only real agenda is openness, curiosity, and global connection.

That depends entirely on what you mean by “fail.”

If you’re asking whether Esperanto became the world’s dominant second language—no, it didn’t. That was part of the original dream for some early proponents, and it hasn’t happened (yet). Because of that, some people write it off as a failed experiment.

But if you look at Esperanto as a living, functioning language and global community, the picture is very different. Esperanto is very much alive:

• It has tens of thousands of active speakers, and many more with conversational ability.

• There’s a rich body of original literature, music, podcasts, and video content in Esperanto.

• International gatherings—like the Universala Kongreso, national conferences, and youth festivals—bring together thousands of speakers every year.

• It’s taught on platforms like Duolingo, used in daily chats and meetups, and maintained by a wide network of volunteers, teachers, and learners.

In that sense, Esperanto hasn’t failed—it’s succeeded in building a truly international community of people who believe in linguistic equality, curiosity, and cross-cultural connection. That’s no small thing.

First of all, congratulations on asking these questions before you start learning Esperanto!  You’d be surprised how many times people say “OK, I’ve learned Esperanto, now what should I do with it?”

So before you start learning, you need to do some reading about what Esperanto is, where it came from, why it was created, and what its actual status is in the world today.  Esperanto is a complete and real language, but it was developed specifically to help people communicate with speakers of other languages and people in other cultures.  The goal of Esperanto, succinctly, is “to break down and cross language barriers.”

If that’s not something that speaks to you or resonates with you, then you might want to look for another learning project. 

Many people in the world today are interested in “conlangs” (constructed languages) as a kind of language or logic game.  Esperanto is a little different from other constructed languages, because it exists for a specific reason, it has a comparatively long history, and it has a large speaker community.  It’s possible to learn Esperanto from that perspective, but there’s really not very much common ground between people who learn Esperanto as a game and people who learn Esperanto for its intended purposes. 

If you do learn Esperanto, you have access to a large body of literature (much of it available for free online today), access to lots of forums and discussion groups that involve people from different countries and cultural perspectives, opportunities to meet and interact with people who have similar and shared interests but who don’t speak your first language, and opportunities to participate in Esperanto events in different places. 

You also gain a lot of insight into language, how it works, how grammar functions, and how English is not the norm for communication that most English speakers believe it to be.  Many people also find Esperanto to be a “trainer language” or “easy first foreign language”, to gain basic skills of language learning without having to face lots of exceptions to rules. 

For many, Esperanto is much easier to learn than many other languages.  First of all, Esperanto is spoken just as it is written.  Additionally, the stress of every word falls on the second-to-last syllable.  There are no silent letters or other pronunciation quirks. 

Second, the grammar is both regular and simplified.  No irregular verbs, no grammatical gender (you don’t have to worry if “table” is masculine or feminine), and only one case to learn (the accusative, which marks the direct object and is always just the letter -n).

Third, Esperanto’s system of word-building gives beginners a lot of ways to say things using a smaller number of words. And speakers of Esperanto tend to be exceedingly accepting of new learners and their more limited ways of expressing themselves. They were beginners once, too

If you’re an English speaker, you might want to try being dropped off in central China and then make your way back home using only English.  The idea of English as a universal language is a bit of a myth, held by (of course) English speakers, who often want to justify their monolingualism.

Esperanto might not help you any better in central China.  But if you’ve learned Esperanto, you have an understanding of different languages and different cultures, and may be better prepared to figure out how to get home using other strategies.

It’s also important to recognize that the idea of English as a universal language really means “the language of the rich, powerful, and well-educated.”  It doesn’t mean “a language accessible and useful to everyone.”

In previous centuries, speakers of Latin would have considered it the universal language, and in the 19^th Century speakers of French would have been in the same position.  The current status of English is not necessarily a permanent.

Because Esperanto offers something unique: it’s a language spoken by people all over the world who choose to learn it—not out of necessity, but out of a genuine desire to connect across cultures.

If your main goal is to engage deeply with a specific region—say, Spain, China, or the Arab world—then learning Spanish, Mandarin, or Arabic will serve you well. But if you’re interested in meeting people from many different countries, hearing diverse perspectives, and being part of a truly global community, Esperanto might be the better choice.

Esperanto isn’t just a language—it’s a shared space where curiosity, equality, and international friendship are built in from the start.

Absolutely—Esperanto makes a fantastic springboard for learning other languages. Here’s why:

• Regular grammar & clear structure: Its completely regular rules mean you spend less time memorizing exceptions and more time practicing concepts (like noun-adjective agreement or verb conjugations) that reappear in Romance and Germanic languages.

• Transparent vocabulary: About 70 % of Esperanto roots come from Latin and Romance tongues, so words like “familio”, “biblioteko” or “informo” will look familiar if you move on to Spanish, French, Italian or even English technical terms.

• Learning strategies: Starting with a highly logical language teaches you how to analyze patterns, break down new words, and spot cognates—skills you’ll immediately apply when tackling your next language.

• Confidence & motivation: Quick progress in Esperanto (you can be conversational in a few months!) gives you the boost you need to keep going. Many polyglots use it as a “trial run” before diving into harder languages.

• Community practice: Through Duolingo’s Esperanto course, local meet-ups or events like NASK, you’ll pick up conversational skills and cultural context that mirror what happens in any language-learning community.

In short, think of Esperanto as a fast, friendly trampoline: it catapults you into the wider world of language learning, armed with techniques, confidence and a head start on vocabulary and grammar.

Obviously, we have a bit of a bias toward Esperanto—it’s stood the test of time, has a rich culture, and is actively spoken around the world. It’s also one of the only constructed languages with a truly global, living community and regular in-person events and publications.

That said, many of our members are also fans of other constructed languages, like Toki Pona, Ido, or Lojban. Each conlang offers something unique: Toki Pona’s minimalism, for example, invites deep reflection through simplicity, while Lojban’s logical structure appeals to analytical minds.

If your goal is to quickly start speaking and meeting people from all over the world, Esperanto is probably your best bet. But if you’re drawn to philosophical ideas, linguistic experimentation, or niche online communities, exploring other conlangs can be incredibly rewarding too.

In the end, it’s not an either/or—many Esperanto speakers are passionate about multiple languages. You might be, too.

1. Complete Esperanto by Tim Owen & Judith Meyer
Easily the most thorough “all-in-one” textbook for English speakers. It walks you through grammar, vocabulary and plenty of practice exercises. (Yes, it’s on Amazon, but local bookstores sometimes carry it too.)

2. Lernu!
A free, community-driven site with interactive lessons, plenty of reading material and a vibrant forum. It’s translated into dozens of languages, so you can switch your interface as you progress.

3. Duolingo’s Esperanto Course
Perfect for daily drills—gamified lessons keep you coming back. Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, with new exercises added all the time.

4. Esperanto: Learning and Using the International Language by David Richardson
This classic is a free PDF from Esperanto-USA. Ideal if you’re juggling another textbook but still want rich, authentic texts.

5. Live Practice & Events
Nothing beats face-to-face (or on Zoom!) conversation:

• NASK (North American Summer Kursaro) each July—intensive courses, cultural activities and non-stop Esperanto immersion.

• Landa Kongreso de Usono —our annual national congress, rotating cities every year.

• Local chapter meet-ups, online events, and events found on Eventa Servo year round on the calendar.

Very rarely—and that’s understandable. In most U.S. schools, resources for language education are limited, and when languages are offered, they tend to focus on those with clear practical or regional relevance, like Spanish, French, or Mandarin. From an educational policy perspective, offering Spanish often makes the most sense.

Esperanto, however, isn’t meant to replace those languages. It’s a language people typically choose to learn—not because they have to, but because they’re curious about international communication, linguistic equality, or the global Esperanto community.

That said, some schools and universities have offered Esperanto courses—especially through summer programs, online platforms, and clubs—and there’s a growing body of research suggesting that learning Esperanto can help students build confidence and foundational skills for later language study.

In short, Esperanto usually lives outside the traditional classroom—and that’s part of its appeal. It’s a language of choice, not obligation.

It depends on what you’re looking for.

If your goal is to engage deeply with a specific culture—say, to live in Spain, do business in China, or study in the Arab world—then learning Spanish, Mandarin, or Arabic makes perfect sense. Those languages open doors to particular regions and communities.

But Esperanto offers something different: it’s spoken around the world by people who want to connect across cultures—not for work or school, but for the joy of learning about others’ lives, perspectives, and values. It’s not tied to any one country, so when you speak Esperanto, you’re likely to meet people from many different places, all using the same language to bridge their differences.

That’s what makes Esperanto unique. It isn’t a tool for getting ahead in one part of the world—it’s a way to connect with people from all parts of the world on equal footing. If that kind of open, international community appeals to you, Esperanto might be the better choice. It’s not an either/or.

Absolutely—and not just a little. Esperanto has a rich and diverse literary tradition that dates all the way back to its founding in 1887, when the very first booklet (Unua Libro) included examples of original writing. Dr. L. L. Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, quickly followed up with translations of major works like Hamlet and parts of the Hebrew Bible, helping to establish a literary foundation for the language.

From there, the community took over. People around the world began to write original stories, poetry, essays, and plays in Esperanto—creating a global literature that continues to grow today.

One classic collection is the Esperanta Antologio, a landmark volume of over 900 pages that showcases the finest original Esperanto poetry and prose from 1887 to 1981. More recently, the Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto (PIV) and platforms like Tekstaro.com have made it easy to access a wide variety of classic and contemporary texts online.

Esperanto literature today includes everything from novels and memoirs to science fiction and children’s books. Modern authors are actively writing and publishing, and many of these works are accessible in both print and digital form.

Print and Digital Publications

While daily Esperanto newspapers are a thing of the past, the community remains very active in publishing:

• Usona Esperantisto – The quarterly magazine of Esperanto-USA, featuring essays, updates, interviews, original writing, and book reviews from across the North American community.

• Esperanto – A monthly magazine published by the Universala Esperanto-Asocio, with global news, cultural articles, and interviews.

• Kontakto – A youth-focused publication from TEJO (World Esperanto Youth Organization), full of accessible articles and fresh writing from around the world.

• Monato – An award-winning monthly newsmagazine in Esperanto, not about Esperanto but rather offering global news written by locals for an international audience.

• Juna Amiko – A beginner-friendly magazine published by the International Association of Esperanto Teachers, great for learners.

Online Reading and News

In the digital age, Esperanto has found a vibrant home online. A few major sites include:

• Libera Folio – Independent reporting and commentary about the Esperanto movement.

• La Ondo de Esperanto – A long-running online and print publication with a broad cultural focus.

• Monato – News and commentary on world events, written in Esperanto by contributors from around the globe.

Whether you’re into poetry, news, science fiction, or essays, there’s a growing and living Esperanto literary world waiting to be explored—and it’s one of the best ways to deepen your connection with the language and the global community that speaks it.