In 2025, there were around 1.53 billion people worldwide who spoke English either natively or as a second language, slightly more than the 1.18 billion Mandarin Chinese speakers at the time of survey. Hindi and Spanish accounted for the third and fourth most widespread languages that year. Languages in the United States The United States does not have an official language, but the country uses English, specifically American English, for legislation, regulation, and other official pronouncements. The United States is a land of immigration, and the languages spoken in the United States vary as a result of the multicultural population. The second most common language spoken in the United States is Spanish or Spanish Creole, which over than 43 million people spoke at home in 2023. There were also 3.5 million Chinese speakers (including both Mandarin and Cantonese),1.8 million Tagalog speakers, and 1.57 million Vietnamese speakers counted in the United States that year. Different languages at home The percentage of people in the United States speaking a language other than English at home varies from state to state. The state with the highest percentage of population speaking a language other than English is California. About 45 percent of its population was speaking a language other than English at home in 2023.

Turkey was the European country which had the largest share of its citizens self-reporting that they could not speak any foreign language, with almost 82 percent saying they were unable to do so. The United Kingdom and Bosnia and Herzegovina also had over 60 percent of their citizens self-reporting not being able to speak a foreign language. On the other hand, Slovenia, Sweden, and Estonia all had less than five percent of their populations stating they could not speak another language other than their country's main language. Slovenia, Luxembourg, and Norway were the three countries with the most citizens stating they could speak three foreign languages. On average, 37 percent of EU citizens report speaking one foreign language, 22 percent speak two, and 8.6 percent speak three, while 32 percent report speaking none.

Ireland stands as an outlier, as all citizens of the north-western European country self-reported as speaking a foreign language. This is, however, actually, a result of how the question was asked, as respondents interpreted English as being a foreign language (in the sense of not being native to Ireland), in spite of it being one of the two official languages in the country (alongside Irish) and being spoken by the vast majority of the population in Ireland as their first language.

Description

This comprehensive dataset provides a wealth of information about all countries worldwide, covering a wide range of indicators and attributes. It encompasses demographic statistics, economic indicators, environmental factors, healthcare metrics, education statistics, and much more. With every country represented, this dataset offers a complete global perspective on various aspects of nations, enabling in-depth analyses and cross-country comparisons.

Key Features

• Country: Name of the country.
• Density (P/Km2): Population density measured in persons per square kilometer.
• Abbreviation: Abbreviation or code representing the country.
• Agricultural Land (%): Percentage of land area used for agricultural purposes.
• Land Area (Km2): Total land area of the country in square kilometers.
• Armed Forces Size: Size of the armed forces in the country.
• Birth Rate: Number of births per 1,000 population per year.
• Calling Code: International calling code for the country.
• Capital/Major City: Name of the capital or major city.
• CO2 Emissions: Carbon dioxide emissions in tons.
• CPI: Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation and purchasing power.
• CPI Change (%): Percentage change in the Consumer Price Index compared to the previous year.
• Currency_Code: Currency code used in the country.
• Fertility Rate: Average number of children born to a woman during her lifetime.
• Forested Area (%): Percentage of land area covered by forests.
• Gasoline_Price: Price of gasoline per liter in local currency.
• GDP: Gross Domestic Product, the total value of goods and services produced in the country.
• Gross Primary Education Enrollment (%): Gross enrollment ratio for primary education.
• Gross Tertiary Education Enrollment (%): Gross enrollment ratio for tertiary education.
• Infant Mortality: Number of deaths per 1,000 live births before reaching one year of age.
• Largest City: Name of the country's largest city.
• Life Expectancy: Average number of years a newborn is expected to live.
• Maternal Mortality Ratio: Number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
• Minimum Wage: Minimum wage level in local currency.
• Official Language: Official language(s) spoken in the country.
• Out of Pocket Health Expenditure (%): Percentage of total health expenditure paid out-of-pocket by individuals.
• Physicians per Thousand: Number of physicians per thousand people.
• Population: Total population of the country.
• Population: Labor Force Participation (%): Percentage of the population that is part of the labor force.
• Tax Revenue (%): Tax revenue as a percentage of GDP.
• Total Tax Rate: Overall tax burden as a percentage of commercial profits.
• Unemployment Rate: Percentage of the labor force that is unemployed.
• Urban Population: Percentage of the population living in urban areas.
• Latitude: Latitude coordinate of the country's location.
• Longitude: Longitude coordinate of the country's location.

Potential Use Cases

• Analyze population density and land area to study spatial distribution patterns.
• Investigate the relationship between agricultural land and food security.
• Examine carbon dioxide emissions and their impact on climate change.
• Explore correlations between economic indicators such as GDP and various socio-economic factors.
• Investigate educational enrollment rates and their implications for human capital development.
• Analyze healthcare metrics such as infant mortality and life expectancy to assess overall well-being.
• Study labor market dynamics through indicators such as labor force participation and unemployment rates.
• Investigate the role of taxation and its impact on economic development.
• Explore urbanization trends and their social and environmental consequences.

In 2020, about 93.8 percent of the Mexican population was monolingual in Spanish. Around five percent spoke a combination of Spanish and indigenous languages. Spanish is the third-most spoken native language worldwide, after Mandarin Chinese and Hindi.

Mexican Spanish

Spanish was first being used in Mexico in the 16th century, at the time of Spanish colonization during the Conquest campaigns of what is now Mexico and the Caribbean. As of 2018, Mexico is the country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers worldwide. Mexican Spanish is influenced by English and Nahuatl, and has about 120 million users. The Mexican government uses Spanish in the majority of its proceedings, however it recognizes 68 national languages, 63 of which are indigenous.

Indigenous languages spoken

Of the indigenous languages spoken, two of the most widely used are Nahuatl and Maya. Due to a history of marginalization of indigenous groups, most indigenous languages are endangered, and many linguists warn they might cease to be used after a span of just a few decades. In recent years, legislative attempts such as the San Andréas Accords have been made to protect indigenous groups, who make up about 25 million of Mexico’s 125 million total inhabitants, though the efficacy of such measures is yet to be seen.

This dataset displays information regarding the language spoken most often at home. This data is available on the Census Division level, and is available from the 2006 Canadian Census. This data was obtained through: Statistics Canada. This data refers to the language spoken most often at home by the individual at the time of the census. Other languages spoken at home on a regular basis were also collected. Included are population figures for the following attributes: Total Population, English, French, Non-Official, English and French, English and Non-Official Language, French and Non-Official Language, and English French and Non-Official Speaking. This data is also broken down by Age Group.

As of 2021, Hausa was the most widely spoken local language in Nigeria, as it was used by more than ** million people. Following this were Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin, Igbo, and Fulfulde, which registered approximately **** million, ** million, ** million, and ** million speakers, respectively. English is the official language of Nigeria, with ** million speakers.

There would be little adaptive value in a complex communication system like human language if there were no ways to detect and correct problems. A systematic comparison of conversation in a broad sample of the world’s languages reveals a universal system for the real-time resolution of frequent breakdowns in communication. In a sample of 12 languages of 8 language families of varied typological profiles we find a system of ‘other-initiated repair’, where the recipient of an unclear message can signal trouble and the sender can repair the original message. We find that this system is frequently used (on average about once per 1.4 minutes in any language), and that it has detailed common properties, contrary to assumptions of radical cultural variation. Unrelated languages share the same three functionally distinct types of repair initiator for signalling problems and use them in the same kinds of contexts. People prefer to choose the type that is the most specific possible, a principle that minimizes cost both for the sender being asked to fix the problem and for the dyad as a social unit. Disruption to the conversation is kept to a minimum, with the two-utterance repair sequence being on average no longer that the single utterance which is being fixed. The findings, controlled for historical relationships, situation types and other dependencies, reveal the fundamentally cooperative nature of human communication and offer support for the pragmatic universals hypothesis: while languages may vary in the organization of grammar and meaning, key systems of language use may be largely similar across cultural groups. They also provide a fresh perspective on controversies about the core properties of language, by revealing a common infrastructure for social interaction which may be the universal bedrock upon which linguistic diversity rests.

As of 2018, the languages most commonly spoken by individuals inside of South African households were isiZulu at 25.3 percent, isiXhosa at 14.8 percent and Afrikaans at 12.2 percent respectively. While English only accounts for the sixth most common language spoken inside of South African households at 8.1 percent, it is the second-most prevalent language spoken outside of homes, at 16.6 percent.

The Catalan and Spanish languages coexist in the coastal region of Catalonia, both enjoying official and equal status. As of 2024, more than ** percent of the population of Catalonia considered Spanish their mother tongue, whereas less than ** percent reported being native speakers of Catalan. Catalonia was the second most populous autonomous community in Spain in 2024 with about * million people. Editorial scene in Catalonia Despite the fact that the vast majority of books in Spain are published in Spanish, the Catalan language ranked second in the country’s editorial scene at about * percent of book publications, revealing the weight of this language among other languages spoken in Spain. In fact, Catalan was one of the most translated languages in this country according to the latest studies. Catalonia in Spain The Catalan participation in the Spanish GDP was estimated at ** percent in 2023. This figure maintained steadily over the last few years, with an average share of about ** percent of the total GDP of the country. The average GDP per capita in Catalonia was significantly higher than that of the rest of Spain at ****** euros in 2022. During the same period, Spain’s average GDP per capita was ****** euros.

The statistic reflects the distribution of languages in Canada in 2022. In 2022, 87.1 percent of the total population in Canada spoke English as their native tongue.

In 2023, there were over ****** interpreters and translators employed in the United States. The number of people working in these positions has been ********** for several of the last years, as the number of those employed in interpreting and translating services in the United States is currently far from the number registered in 2012. Language services industry in the United States The language service industry includes activities aimed at facilitating communication across linguistic and cultural barriers. Activities falling under this category are broad and include translation, interpretation, localization, transcription, and subtitling. Despite some fluctuations, the industry revenue of these services in the United States is expected to grow in the coming years. This positive trend was also confirmed by the mean hourly wage paid out to translators and interpreters in the country, which has increased steadily since 2012. In 2023, Virginia was the state in the U.S. with the highest wages in interpreting and translating services, followed by the District of Columbia, and Vermont. Leading language services providers In 2023, English was by far the most spoken language worldwide, followed by Chinese and Hindi. It is therefore not surprising that eight of the ten global leading language service providers were located in English-speaking countries. TransPerfect, the world's largest privately held provider of translation services, led the ranking with annual revenue amounting to *** billion U.S. dollars. The New York-based firm was founded in 1992, and it currently operates in *** different languages, employing more than ***** certified linguists.

Senior Executive was the highest-earning software development job worldwide as of 2024, with the average annual salary amounting to around *** thousand U.S. dollars. Developer advocate and engineering manager were the other developer jobs with high salaries. Software developer A software developer, or more commonly known as a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates software by using computer languages. There are two main types of software developers: application developer – those who design computer or mobile applications – and system developer – those who focus on operating systems-level software and network distribution software. In 2021, there were around **** million software developers worldwide. Programming languages A programming language is a formal language that instruct a computer or computing device to perform certain tasks. Languages that software developers use to write code are called “high-level languages”; these can be complied into a “low-level language” which can be understood by the computer hardware. Programming languages that are most used by developers include JavaScript, HTML/CSS, SQL, and Python. Clojure, F# and Elixir, on the other hand, are the languages associated with the highest salaries.

Singapore scored 631 out of a maximum of 800 points in the English Proficiency Index 2022, the highest score across the selected Asian countries and territories. In contrast, Thailand reached an English Proficiency Index score of 416 that year.