In order to qualify for inclusion in the QS World University Rankings® - Linguistics 2016, universities must offer a course or the option to specialize in these disciplines, and meet the discipline specific threshold for papers published.
| 2016 | 2015 | Institution | Country | Academic | Employer | Citations | H | Score |
| 1 | 1 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | United States | 100.0 | 88.1 | 100.0 | 97.9 | 98.7 |
| 2 | 4= | Harvard University | United States | 85.2 | 95.1 | 99.3 | 100.0 | 87.6 |
| 3= | 4= | University of Cambridge | United Kingdom | 85.7 | 99.9 | 83.1 | 87.4 | 87.1 |
| 3= | 3 | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom | 86.7 | 87.8 | 87.4 | 91.8 | 87.1 |
| 5 | 6 | University of Oxford | United Kingdom | 85.1 | 99.3 | 84.8 | 85.8 | 86.5 |
| 6 | 7 | Stanford University | United States | 83.8 | 88.9 | 99.3 | 96.8 | 85.7 |
| 7 | 10 | University of Massachusetts, Amherst | United States | 89.1 | 50.1 | 92.6 | 94.4 | 85.6 |
| 8 | 2 | University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | United States | 84.1 | 75.0 | 90.3 | 89.0 | 83.7 |
| 9 | 11 | University of California, Berkeley (UCB) | United States | 83.6 | 75.7 | 93.3 | 90.4 | 83.6 |
| 10= | 14 | Peking University | China | 82.3 | 94.3 | 78.7 | 71.2 | 82.8 |
| 10= | 9 | University of Hong Kong (HKU) | Hong Kong | 83.6 | 80.6 | 78.2 | 78.4 | 82.8 |
| 12 | 12 | University of Pennsylvania | United States | 82.3 | 73.9 | 96.9 | 90.4 | 82.6 |
| 13 | 15 | The University of Melbourne | Australia | 79.5 | 79.9 | 85.0 | 82.3 | 80.0 |
| 14 | 17 | UCL (University College London) | United Kingdom | 77.6 | 85.0 | 88.5 | 94.4 | 79.7 |
| 15 | 13 | Lancaster University | United Kingdom | 81.9 | 55.4 | 87.7 | 76.2 | 79.3 |
| 16 | 19 | The University of Tokyo | Japan | 78.0 | 84.6 | 82.5 | 76.2 | 78.8 |
| 17 | 35= | Lomonosov Moscow State University | Russia | 82.3 | 94.1 | 28.7 | 41.2 | 78.7 |
| 18 | 8 | National University of Singapore (NUS) | Singapore | 78.0 | 78.9 | 82.3 | 78.4 | 78.3 |
| 19 | 22 | University of Amsterdam | Netherlands | 76.4 | 79.0 | 84.3 | 89.0 | 77.7 |
| 20 | 23 | University of Chicago | United States | 77.0 | 72.4 | 86.4 | 89.0 | 77.6 |
| 21 | 20 | Ohio State University | United States | 78.9 | 57.6 | 85.9 | 85.8 | 77.5 |
| 22 | 31= | University of Toronto | Canada | 75.1 | 77.2 | 89.6 | 85.8 | 76.6 |
| 23 | 27 | University of Maryland, College Park | United States | 78.2 | 43.9 | 92.3 | 94.4 | 76.3 |
| 24 | 24 | Nanyang Technological University (NTU) | Singapore | 75.0 | 80.4 | 77.1 | 71.2 | 75.5 |
| 25 | 21 | The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) | Hong Kong | 74.7 | 82.6 | 73.8 | 73.8 | 75.4 |
| 26= | 25= | McGill University | Canada | 74.6 | 67.4 | 90.6 | 87.4 | 75.3 |
| 26= | 28 | The University of Sydney | Australia | 73.9 | 83.2 | 81.4 | 76.2 | 75.3 |
| 28 | 29 | Leiden University | Netherlands | 77.1 | 58.3 | 77.2 | 73.8 | 75.1 |
| 29 | 18 | City University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 75.3 | 68.7 | 79.4 | 76.2 | 74.9 |
| 30= | 51-100 | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Germany | 74.2 | 80.4 | 77.0 | 71.2 | 74.8 |
| 30= | 34 | University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) | United States | 76.7 | 51.4 | 87.8 | 78.4 | 74.8 |
| 32 | 16 | Australian National University (ANU) | Australia | 75.1 | 73.5 | 75.0 | 68.4 | 74.6 |
| 33 | 30 | New York University (NYU) | United States | 71.5 | 80.3 | 88.0 | 89.0 | 74.1 |
| 34 | 51-100 | Yale University | United States | 70.6 | 85.7 | 92.3 | 80.4 | 73.7 |
| 35= | 49 | Georgetown University | United States | 73.9 | 57.4 | 90.7 | 82.3 | 73.5 |
| 35= | 25= | University of British Columbia | Canada | 72.3 | 69.6 | 90.7 | 84.1 | 73.5 |
| 35= | 45 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | United States | 73.0 | 56.7 | 91.4 | 96.8 | 73.5 |
| 38= | 41 | Seoul National University (SNU) | South Korea | 73.2 | 82.3 | 66.6 | 65.3 | 73.4 |
| 38= | 42 | University of Texas at Austin | United States | 71.4 | 69.5 | 94.4 | 93.1 | 73.4 |
| 40 | 31= | University of California, San Diego (UCSD) | United States | 71.8 | 62.7 | 96.5 | 93.1 | 73.2 |
| 41 | 35= | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University | Hong Kong | 72.3 | 80.2 | 76.5 | 68.4 | 73.1 |
| 42 | 51-100 | Stockholm University | Sweden | 71.0 | 78.0 | 83.8 | 76.2 | 72.6 |
| 43 | 51-100 | University of Helsinki | Finland | 72.2 | 73.3 | 76.3 | 68.4 | 72.3 |
| 44 | 39= | The University of Manchester | United Kingdom | 70.6 | 72.1 | 85.4 | 82.3 | 72.1 |
| 45 | 37= | University of Michigan | United States | 69.4 | 69.8 | 89.2 | 80.4 | 71.0 |
| 46 | 43 | Cornell University | United States | 68.7 | 72.0 | 92.1 | 82.3 | 70.9 |
| 47 | 51-100 | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | Mexico | 71.5 | 71.5 | 60.6 | 57.8 | 70.3 |
| 48 | 101-150 | Columbia University | United States | 67.2 | 79.7 | 88.4 | 80.4 | 70.2 |
| 49= | 46 | Radboud University Nijmegen | Netherlands | 70.8 | 47.4 | 86.4 | 87.4 | 70.1 |
| 49= | 33 | The University of Auckland | New Zealand | 68.8 | 74.6 | 81.0 | 71.2 | 70.1 |
