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.

As of February 2025, English was the most popular language for web content, with over 49.4 percent of websites using it. Spanish ranked second, with six percent of web content, while the content in the German language followed, with 5.6 percent. English as the leading online language United States and India, the countries with the most internet users after China, are also the world's biggest English-speaking markets. The internet user base in both countries combined, as of January 2023, was over a billion individuals. This has led to most of the online information being created in English. Consequently, even those who are not native speakers may use it for convenience. Global internet usage by regions As of October 2024, the number of internet users worldwide was 5.52 billion. In the same period, Northern Europe and North America were leading in terms of internet penetration rates worldwide, with around 97 percent of its populations accessing the internet.

In 2023, around 43.37 million people in the United States spoke Spanish at home. In comparison, approximately 998,179 people were speaking Russian at home during the same year. The distribution of the U.S. population by ethnicity can be accessed here. A ranking of the most spoken languages across the world can be accessed here.

As of 2024, JavaScript and HTML/CSS were the most commonly used programming languages among software developers around the world, with more than 62 percent of respondents stating that they used JavaScript and just around 53 percent using HTML/CSS. Python, SQL, and TypeScript rounded out the top five most widely used programming languages around the world. Programming languages At a very basic level, programming languages serve as sets of instructions that direct computers on how to behave and carry out tasks. Thanks to the increased prevalence of, and reliance on, computers and electronic devices in today’s society, these languages play a crucial role in the everyday lives of people around the world. An increasing number of people are interested in furthering their understanding of these tools through courses and bootcamps, while current developers are constantly seeking new languages and resources to learn to add to their skills. Furthermore, programming knowledge is becoming an important skill to possess within various industries throughout the business world. Job seekers with skills in Python, R, and SQL will find their knowledge to be among the most highly desirable data science skills and likely assist in their search for employment.

Mexico is the country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world. As of 2024, 132.5 million people in Mexico spoke Spanish with a native command of the language. Colombia was the nation with the second-highest number of native Spanish speakers, at around 52.7 million. Spain came in third, with 48 million, and Argentina fourth, with 46 million. Spanish, a world language As of 2023, Spanish ranked as the fourth most spoken language in the world, only behind English, Chinese, and Hindi, with over half a billion speakers. Spanish is the official language of over 20 countries, the majority on the American continent, nonetheless, it's also one of the official languages of Equatorial Guinea in Africa. Other countries have a strong influence, like the United States, Morocco, or Brazil, countries included in the list of non-Hispanic countries with the highest number of Spanish speakers. The second most spoken language in the U.S. In the most recent data, Spanish ranked as the language, other than English, with the highest number of speakers, with 12 times more speakers as the second place. Which comes to no surprise following the long history of migrations from Latin American countries to the Northern country. Moreover, only during the fiscal year 2022. 5 out of the top 10 countries of origin of naturalized people in the U.S. came from Spanish-speaking countries.

Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the world. As of 2025, it was home to 840 different languages. Indonesia ranked second with 709 languages spoken. In the United States, 335 languages were spoken in that same year.

As of 2023, more than ** percent of people in the United States spoke a language other than English at home. California had the highest share among all U.S. states, with ** percent of its population speaking a language other than English at home.

Hindi, with over *** million native speakers was the most spoken language across Indian homes, followed by Bengali with ** million speakers, as of 2011 census data. English native speakers accounted for about *** thousand during the measured time period. The colonial rule in India One of the most remarkable and widespread legacies that the British colonial rule left behind was the English language. Before independence, the English language was the solely used for higher education and in government and administrative processes. Post-independence, however, and till today, Hindi was claimed as the language with official government patronage. This lead to resistance from the southern states of India, where Hindi did not have prominence. Consequently, the Official Languages Act of 1963, was enacted by the parliament, which ensured the continued use of English for official purposes in conjunction with Hindi. Multi-linguistic cultures India has approximately ** major languages that are written in about ** different scripts. While the country’s official languages are both, English and Hindi, Hindi remains the most preferred language used online especially in the northern rural areas. The use of English is becoming increasingly popular in the urban areas. In addition, almost every state in India has its own official language that is studied in primary and secondary school as an obligatory second language. Among the most prominent are Bengali, Marathi, and Telugu.

The number of enrollments in language schools in Spain reveals that Spaniards are well aware of the importance of foreign languages in modern times. During the 2022/23 academic year, almost 331,000 people were registered at the Spanish language schools to add a new language to their curricula. In a globalized world, languages are taking a much more important role on the job market. The most studied and spoken languages in the world include English, Mandarin, Hindi or Spanish.

The importance of language knowledge in the job market Enrollment numbers at language schools come as no surprise considering that foreign languages have become a vital asset for job seekers in the last years. English, par excellence the most used language for international affairs, unsurprisingly ranked first on the list of most valued languages on the Spanish job market, with approximately 65.2 of job openings that require foreign language skills demanding this one. Far from that stood French, with 17.38 percent of the job openings.

Languages in the Spanish multimedia scene Most of the best selling albums Spain during 2022 were recorded in the country’s main language Spanish, with 38 albums in the top 50. As for videogames, 96 percent of the games produced in the country had English as a language option. Spanish was the second most used language, being present in 91 percent of productions.

As of October 2024, an estimated 33.48 percent of Steam gaming platform users worldwide used Simplified Chinese as their main language. English was the second-most common language, selected by 32.68 percent of users.

Given its diverse range of languages and high level of economic development, it is perhaps not surprising that Europe is home to the largest language services market in the world, comprising almost half of the global market. Language services globally The language services market covers a broad range of activities, from language instruction to professional translation services to localization and voice-over services for media such as film, television and video games. With the world becoming increasingly interconnected through technology, this market has more than doubled since 2009, with an expected global value of almost ** billion U.S. dollars in 2019. And, there is good reason to expect this market to continue growing – especially given that the market share of the Asia Pacific region is relatively low, yet the region is home to **** of the *** most commonly spoken languages in the world. Machine translation Technology is playing an increasingly important role in the language services industry. Machine translation, which is the process of using software to translate from one language to another, is a fast-growing field that is expected to more than triple in size from 2017 to 2024. Accordingly, the *** largest providers in the global language services market – Transperfect and Lionbridge – are investing heavily in this area, offering software based ‘artificial intelligence’ translation in conjunction with their more traditional translation services.

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.

This statistic shows the total number of internationally mobile students in the world from 1975 to 2011, with an additional forecast for 2025. In 2011, there were at least *** million students pursuing higher education outside of their home country. A ranking of the most spoken languages across the world can be accessed here.

As of 2022, there were over 2,000 living languages in Africa. With 520 languages, Nigeria accounted for around a fourth of the total languages spoken in Africa. Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo followed, each with over 200 living languages.

Africa's linguistic diversity

Africa boasted a repertoire of more than 2,000 living languages as of 2021. The continent had more than 900 classified as vigorous due to their widespread usage in face-to-face communication across all age groups. A regional perspective on the matter revealed that East Africa was Africa's most linguistically diverse region.

Embracing diversity: Africans welcome ethnic diversity in neighbors

In terms of cultural diversity, in 2021, the Republic of Chad held the title of being Africa's and the world's most culturally diverse nation. It obtained a cultural diversity index score of 0.85, with Cameroon and Nigeria following closely behind, scoring 0.84 and 0.83, respectively. The index measures diversity on a scale from zero to one, where one signifies the highest diversity level, while zero indicates the lowest level. Moreover, a survey conducted between 2019 and 2021 showed that Africans would be happy to have neighbors of different ethnicity.

As of 2021, Akan was the most spoken local language in Ghana, encompassing Twi dialects such as Fante, Akuapem, Akyem, Ahafo, and Asante. Akan was spoken by over **** million people in the country. Following this were the Ewe, Abron, and Dagbani languages, with users reaching approximately *** million, *** million, and *** million, respectively. English is the official language of Ghana, with nearly *** million speakers.

The statistic shows the 30 largest countries in the world by area. Russia is the largest country by far, with a total area of about 17 million square kilometers.

Population of Russia

Despite its large area, Russia - nowadays the largest country in the world - has a relatively small total population. However, its population is still rather large in numbers in comparison to those of other countries. In mid-2014, it was ranked ninth on a list of countries with the largest population, a ranking led by China with a population of over 1.37 billion people. In 2015, the estimated total population of Russia amounted to around 146 million people. The aforementioned low population density in Russia is a result of its vast landmass; in 2014, there were only around 8.78 inhabitants per square kilometer living in the country. Most of the Russian population lives in the nation’s capital and largest city, Moscow: In 2015, over 12 million people lived in the metropolis.

This graph shows the population of the U.S. by race and ethnic group from 2000 to 2023. In 2023, there were around 21.39 million people of Asian origin living in the United States. A ranking of the most spoken languages across the world can be accessed here. U.S. populationCurrently, the white population makes up the vast majority of the United States’ population, accounting for some 252.07 million people in 2023. This ethnicity group contributes to the highest share of the population in every region, but is especially noticeable in the Midwestern region. The Black or African American resident population totaled 45.76 million people in the same year. The overall population in the United States is expected to increase annually from 2022, with the 320.92 million people in 2015 expected to rise to 341.69 million people by 2027. Thus, population densities have also increased, totaling 36.3 inhabitants per square kilometer as of 2021. Despite being one of the most populous countries in the world, following China and India, the United States is not even among the top 150 most densely populated countries due to its large land mass. Monaco is the most densely populated country in the world and has a population density of 24,621.5 inhabitants per square kilometer as of 2021. As population numbers in the U.S. continues to grow, the Hispanic population has also seen a similar trend from 35.7 million inhabitants in the country in 2000 to some 62.65 million inhabitants in 2021. This growing population group is a significant source of population growth in the country due to both high immigration and birth rates. The United States is one of the most racially diverse countries in the world.

The United States is the non-hispanic country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world, with approximately 41.89 million people with a native command of the language in 2024. However, the European Union had the largest group of non-native speakers with limited proficiency of Spanish, at around 28 million people. Furthermore, Mexico is the country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world as of 2024.

Argentina scored 562 out of a maximum of 800 points in the English Proficiency Index 2023. That was the highest score among all Latin American countries included in the survey. The Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, also received the highest English proficiency score among all the Latin American cities analyzed. Mexico and Haiti received the lowest scores in the region.

This statistic presents the opinion towards French language in France in a survey from 2018. It shows that 75 percent of the respondents first thought of French as a major part of French identity. Secondly they were also 55 percent to mention French as a language widely taught and spoken in the world.