Find Out the Most Popular Language to Study In Each Country
May 5, 2016
Which countries study which languages, and what can we learn from it?
Here’s what we know about cultural affinities, immigration trends, and more.
This data is from 2016. For the most recent global language data, see the 2023 Duolingo Language Report.
Millions of people around the globe are learning a foreign language — but why do countries prefer to learn some languages over others?
Using Duolingo data to find the most popular language
Duolingo has 120 million users around the world, and currently teaches 19 distinct languages.[1] The most popular courses are available for speakers of a variety of languages: for example, you can learn English from 21 different languages!
To find out which languages are the most popular around the globe, we looked at the daily activity of Duolingo users over a period of three months. The data covers all 194 countries. Figures 1 shows the most popular language studied on Duolingo in every country, and Figure 2 shows the second most popular.
Figure 1. The most popular language studied on Duolingo in each country.
| Language | English | French | Spanish | German | Swedish | Italian | Turkish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of countries | 116 | 35 | 32 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Figure 2. The second most popular language studied on Duolingo in each country.
| Language | French | Spanish | German | English | Portuguese | Italian | Swedish | Norwegian | Dutch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of countries | 77 | 57 | 29 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Yes, English dominates — but by how much?
As you may have guessed, English is by far the most studied language around the world: it’s one of the top two languages in two thirds of all countries. This is true even for English-speaking nations, such as the United States — we’ll come back to this finding later on
But just how dominant is English? Figure 3 provides an illustration:
the darker the color, the higher the percentage of Duolingo users
learning English. Overall, it looks pretty dark! English attracts over
half of the users in 94 countries. The darkest regions are in Latin
America, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. English also emerges as the most popular when aggregating across all countries: it’s studied by 53% of all Duolingo users.
Figure 3. The percentage of Duolingo users learning English in each country.
Which languages are next in line?
French and Spanish are in tight competition: French is one of the top two languages in 58% of all countries, and Spanish — in 46% of the countries. But in terms of the overall number of users, Spanish wins: it is studied by 17% of all Duolingo users, compared to only 11% for French. French also has a bit of an unfair advantage in that it’s available on Duolingo from two more languages than Spanish is.
Are French and Spanish popular in different parts of the world? Figures 4 and 5 show the percentage of Duolingo users per country learning French and Spanish, respectively. For French, the darkest regions are in Africa: In Nigeria and Sierra Leone, French is studied by over half of Duolingo users. For Spanish, on the other hand, the darkest regions are in North America and the English-speaking countries in the Caribbean. In Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, about 60% of Duolingo users are learning Spanish.
Figure 4. The percentage of Duolingo users learning French in each country.
Figure 5. The percentage of Duolingo users learning Spanish in each country.
Why is Swedish the top language in Sweden?
Duolingo’s Swedish course turns out to top the charts in Sweden itself: 27% of all users in Sweden are learning Swedish.
Why would that be the case? Immigration to Sweden has been skyrocketing in recent years: one in six Swedish residents in 2015 was born outside of Sweden.
But it’s not just Sweden. There are several other countries where immigrants are using Duolingo to learn the language of their new home.
Who needs help with their country’s official language?
In India, English is one of the two official languages (together with Hindi), but it’s the top language studied on Duolingo; nearly a third of Duolingo users in India are learning English.
In other regions, the situation may be even more dire. In Angola and Mozambique, Portuguese is the only official language (since both countries used to be Portugal’s colonies). Yet, the knowledge of the language is limited among the natives: half of the population in Mozambique and 40% of the population in Angola don’t actually speak Portuguese.
How does Argentina differ from the rest of Latin America?
In Argentina, the second most popular language is actually Italian. 11% of Duolingo users in Argentina are learning Italian — over twice as many as those in neighboring countries (although Uruguay came close).
Who’s learning to talk to their neighbors?
Yes! For some countries, it happens to be one of the three top languages on Duolingo: English, French, or Spanish. For example:
- Mexico → English (#1 language), United States → Spanish (#1 language)
- France → Spanish (#2 language, after English), Spain → French (#2 language, after English)
- English-speaking countries in West Africa → French (#1 language), French-speaking countries in West Africa → English (#1 language)
Where are German learners?
German is the fourth most studied language on Duolingo. It’s one of the top two languages in 20% of all countries — largely focused in Europe, Middle East, and Asia — and it’s studied by 7% of all Duolingo users.
Conclusion
Notice any other interesting patterns in the Duolingo data? Post on Facebook or Twitter!