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INTERNET WORLD USERS BY LANGUAGE
Top 10 Languages
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Internet World Stats presents its latest estimates for
Internet Users by Language
Because of the importance of this research, and due to the lack of other sources, Internet
World Stats publishes several tables and charts featuring analysis and details here for the
top ten languages and also for the top three languages in use by Internet users.
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Top Ten
Languages Used in the Web
( Number of
Internet Users by Language )
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TOP TEN LANGUAGES
IN THE INTERNET
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% of all
Internet Users
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Internet Users
by Language
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Internet
Penetration
by Language
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Language Growth
in Internet
( 2000 - 2008 )
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2008 Estimated
World Population
for the Language
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English
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29.4 %
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430,802,172
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21.1 %
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203.5 %
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2,039,114,892
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Chinese
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18.9 %
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276,216,713
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20.2 %
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755.1 %
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1,365,053,177
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Spanish
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8.5 %
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124,714,378
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27.6 %
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405.3 %
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451,910,690
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Japanese
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6.4 %
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94,000,000
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73.8 %
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99.7 %
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127,288,419
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French
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4.7 %
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68,152,447
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16.6 %
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458.7 %
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410,498,144
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German
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4.2 %
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61,213,160
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63.5 %
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121.0 %
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96,402,649
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Arabic
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4.1 %
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59,853,630
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16.8 %
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2,063.7 %
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357,271,398
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Portuguese
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4.0 %
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58,180,960
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24.3 %
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668.0 %
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239,646,701
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Korean
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2.4 %
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34,820,000
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47.9 %
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82.9 %
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72,711,933
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Italian
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2.4 %
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34,708,144
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59.7 %
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162.9 %
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58,175,843
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TOP 10 LANGUAGES
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84.9 %
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1,242,661,604
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23.8 %
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278.3 %
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5,218,073,846
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Rest of the
Languages
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15.1 %
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220,970,757
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15.2 %
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580.4 %
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1,458,046,442
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WORLD TOTAL
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100.0 %
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1,463,632,361
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21.9 %
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305.5 %
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6,676,120,288
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(*)
NOTES: (1) Internet Top Ten Languages Usage Stats were updated for
June 30, 2008. (2) Internet Penetration is the ratio between
the sum of Internet users speaking a language and the total
population estimate that speaks that specific language. (3) The
most recent Internet usage information comes from data published
by Nielsen//NetRatings, International Telecommunications Union, Computer Industry Almanac, and other reliable
sources. (4) World population information comes from the
U.S. Census Bureau
. (5) For
definitions and navigation help in several languages, see the Site Surfing Guide. (6) Stats may be cited, stating the
source and establishing an active link back to Internet World Stats. Copyright © 2008,
Miniwatts Marketing Group. All rights reserved worldwide.
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Examples for data
interpretation:
- There are 124,714,378 Spanish speaking people using
the Internet, this represents 8.5 % of all the Internet
users in the world.
- Out of the estimated 451,910,690 world population that speaks
Spanish, only 27.6 % use the Internet.
- The number of Spanish Speaking Internet Users has grown 405.3 %
in the last eight years (2000-2008).
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Tallying the number of
speakers of the world's languages is an increasingly complex
task, particularly with the push in many countries to teach
English in their public schools. How many people can actually use
the global language? David Graddol estimated a total of 750
million L1 (first or native language) plus L2 (second or nth
language) speakers of English in his
Future of English Report (pdf document) for the British Council.
One of our subscribers,
Martin Schell, has reviewed Prof. Braj Kachru's
new book Asian Englishes
which claims that India and
China combined have over half a billion "users" of
English.
Indeed, many people are bilingual or multilingual, but here we assign
only one language per person in order to have all the language totals
add up to the total world population (zero-sum approach). No adjustments
have been made for infants or illiteracy in the Internet penetration
rate calculations. Very few countries have 100% literacy. Australia, Denmark,
Finland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Norway are six countries to mention.
Regarding children, most are early Internet adopters (when they are given the
chance to surf).
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Internet Usage in the World
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Other Web Sites with Statistics and Information on Language
Sites in the Internet
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Global Language Monitor
Need to know which language is spoken in which country? Find the
answer in these pages.
List of Official Languages
Wikiverse list of the official languages of sovereign
countries.
Listing of World Languages
Select a language from the list to learn more about its history,
status, sound system, grammar, vocabulary, writing and much more...
Ethnologue
An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the
world’s 6,912 known living languages.
Modern Language Association (USA)
The MLA Language Map and its Data Center provide information
about more than 47,000,000 people in the United States who
speak languages other than English at home.
Verbivore - English Language Links
Selected English Language directory by Richard Lederer.
Links to grammar, etymology, linguistics et al.
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Language Tools
For those of you wishing to understand the meaning of web
sites of the Internet written in other languages, the following
free language translators will do the job:
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Free Online Translation Tools
More Language Translation
Tools
General Foreign Languages
Language-Learning Resources and useful links for many languages
are available on this site.
One Look
Dictionary
A search engine for words and phrases: If you have a word for
which you'd like a definition or translation, OneLook will
quickly shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define or
translate that word. No word is too obscure: More than 6 million
words in more than 979 online dictionaries are indexed by the
OneLook® search engine.
Internet Market Reports
A large selection of Internet Market Research, featuring the latest information
about Internet usage statistics, global markets, world population, emerging
international e-markets, top languages in Internet, and Internet stats by
geographical regions. Based on the exclusive Internet World Stats archives
(1998 - 2008). Request information from:
the "editor" "at" "internetworldstats.com"
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