Mother Language Day Reveals Most Spoken Languages

Mother Language Day Reveals Most Spoken Languages

Statista.com recently unveiled the latest data on the most widely spoken languages, both on the internet and in real-world contexts, coinciding with February 21st, recognized by the United Nations as International Mother Language Day.

In his report, Felix Richter underscores the persistent challenge posed by language barriers, which can potentially marginalize individuals from accessing information and participating in global discourse.

“What good is the World Wide Web,” Richter asks, “if you speak a language whose footprint barely extends beyond the borders of your own country?”

English serves as the internet’s “lingua franca,” facilitating connections among people worldwide. According to W3Techs‘ estimates, over half of websites use English as their primary language. However, despite its prominence online, the global reach of English might not be as extensive as commonly assumed.

Ethnologue‘s estimates reveal that approximately 1.46 billion individuals worldwide speak English, including roughly 380 million native speakers. This places English as the most spoken language globally, considering both native and non-native speakers, surpassing Mandarin Chinese, spoken by around 1.14 billion people worldwide, including 940 million native speakers. Nevertheless, the 1.46 billion English speakers represent less than 20 percent of the world’s population, leaving approximately 4 out of 5 individuals unable to comprehend half of all websites without translation tools.

The chart above illustrates the disparity in online representation among various widely spoken languages, highlighting the underrepresentation of languages like Chinese, Hindi, and Arabic while demonstrating the heightened online presence of English, German, and Russian compared to their real-world prevalence.

Contrary to the misconception that RTMworld primarily caters to a Chinese audience due to its headquarters being in China, it is, in fact, a global media and events organization with a diverse team and partners across Latin America, North America, India, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Europe.

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