INDICATORS OF LANGUAGES IN THE INTERNET, V3, March 2022

http://funredes.org/lc2022

RESULTS FOR TOP LANGUAGES BY CATEGORY OF INDICATOR

ALL INDICATORS FOR 30 LANGUAGES WITH HIGHER CONTENT PERCENTAGE

RANK			%	%	%	%	%	%
				WORLD				C.PROD.
CONTENTS			INTERNAUTS	POP.	CONN.	CONTENTS	VIRT.PRES.
L1+L2	ISO	LANGUAGES	L1+L2	L1+L2	Speakers	L1+L2	L1+L2	L1+L2
1	zho	Chinese Macro	18,46%	14,72%	71,38%	21,60%	1,47	1,17
2	eng	English	14,83%	13,01%	64,86%	19,60%	1,51	1,32
3	spa	Spanish	6,79%	5,24%	73,72%	7,85%	1,50	1,16
4	hin	Hindi	4,19%	5,80%	41,16%	3,76%	0,65	0,90
5	rus	Russian	3,51%	2,49%	80,32%	3,76%	1,51	1,07
6	fra	French	2,98%	2,58%	65,80%	3,33%	1,29	1,12
7	por	Portuguese	2,99%	2,49%	68,43%	3,13%	1,26	1,05
8	ara	Arabic Macro	3,97%	3,53%	63,99%	3,09%	0,87	0,78
9	jpn	Japanese	1,99%	1,22%	92,63%	2,66%	2,18	1,34
10	deu	German, Standard	2,04%	1,30%	89,17%	2,37%	1,82	1,16
11	msa	Malay Macro	2,36%	2,36%	56,93%	1,96%	0,83	0,83
12	tur	Turkish	1,17%	0,85%	78,05%	1,14%	1,35	0,98
13	ita	Italian	0,87%	0,66%	75,83%	1,00%	1,53	1,14
14	kor	Korean	0,90%	0,79%	65,16%	0,98%	1,24	1,09
15	fas	Persian Macro	1,08%	0,81%	75,91%	0,88%	1,09	0,82
16	ben	Bengali	1,11%	2,58%	24,55%	0,88%	0,34	0,79
17	vie	Vietnamese	0,92%	0,74%	70,96%	0,85%	1,15	0,92
18	urd	Urdu	0,95%	2,22%	24,38%	0,66%	0,30	0,70
19	tha	Thai	0,80%	0,59%	77,95%	0,65%	1,12	0,82
20	pol	Polish	0,60%	0,39%	87,09%	0,63%	1,59	1,04
21	mar	Marathi	0,69%	0,96%	41,06%	0,58%	0,60	0,83
22	tel	Telugu	0,68%	0,92%	41,69%	0,56%	0,60	0,82
23	tam	Tamil	0,61%	0,82%	42,15%	0,51%	0,62	0,83
24	jav	Javanese	0,62%	0,66%	53,76%	0,44%	0,66	0,70
25	nld	Dutch	0,38%	0,24%	91,14%	0,41%	1,73	1,08
26	guj	Gujarati	0,44%	0,60%	41,47%	0,36%	0,61	0,83
27	ukr	Ukrainian	0,40%	0,32%	71,02%	0,35%	1,09	0,88
28	kan	Kannada	0,41%	0,57%	41,11%	0,33%	0,59	0,82
29	ron	Romanian	0,32%	0,23%	79,57%	0,30%	1,29	0,93
30	aze	Azerbaijani Macro	0,33%	0,23%	81,54%	0,28%	1,21	0,85
		REMAIN	22,60%	30,10%		15,13%
		TOTAL	100,00%	100,00%		100,00%

How it reads:

English L1+L2 speakers represent 13% of world L1+L2 population and 18% of Internet users, with a penetration rate of 65%.

22% of the Internet contents are in English.

the Virtual Presence coefficient of English is 1.5 (content/population)

the content productivity of English is 1.32 (content/internauts), the higher after Japanese.

TOP LANGUAGES IN TERMS OF % OF SPEAKERS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET

Norwegian	96.89%
Danish	96.42%
Swedish	93.94%
Catalan	92.88%
Japanese	92.63%
Finnish	92.07%
German. Swiss	91.55%
Limburgish	91.42%
West Flemish	91.30%
Dutch	91.14%
Galician	91.07%
Saxon. Upper	89.81%
Estonian Macro	89.26%
German. Standard	89.17%
Latvian Macro	89.04%
Bavarian	88.24%

TOP LANGUAGES IN VIRTUAL PRESENCE AND CONTENT PRODUCTIVITY

TOP LANGUAGES IN VIRTUAL PRESENCE COEFFICIENT

Japanese	2.18
Norwegian	1.88
German. Standard	1.82
Swedish	1.82
Danish	1.78
Dutch	1.73
Finnish	1.69
Catalan	1.68
German, Swiss	1.63
Polish	1.59
Italian	1.53
Estonian Macro	1.51
Russian	1.51
English	1.51
Hebrew	1.50
Greek	1.50
Spanish	1.50
Chinese Macro	1.47
Latvian Macro	1.46
Galician	1.46

This Virtual Presence Coefficient is computed as the % of contents divided by the % of L1+L2 speakers.

A value of 1 indicates proportionality between speakers and connected populations.

CONTENT PRODUCTIVITY INDICATOR

Japanese	1.34
English	1.32
Chinese Macro	1.17
German, Standard	1.16
Spanish	1.16
Italian	1.14
French	1.12
Norwegian	1.10
Swedish	1.10
Korean	1.09
Dutch	1.08
Russian	1.07
Greek	1.07
Kabuverdianu	1.05
Danish	1.05
Portuguese	1.05
Finnish	1.04
Polish	1.04
Catalan	1.03
German, Swiss	1.02
Hebrew	1.00

This content productivity indicator indicator is computed as the % of contents divided by the % of connected L1+L2 speakers.

Experience have shown this indicator hardly get out of the window 0.5 – 1.5

as the amount of contents seems to be linked to the number of connected speakers by some sort of natural economic law

where the connected persons represent the demand and the contents the offer.

CYBER GEOGRAPHY OF LANGUAGES

(*) It has to be understood as native languages.

(*) For instance, the 8 indigenous languages from Americas with more than 1 M L1 speakers included in the model are: Aymara, Guarani, Haitian Creole, Hunsrik, Jamaican creole, Q’eqchi’, Kiche and Quechua and the languages from Europe includes obviously English, Spanish, French, and so on.

(**) No languages from Pacific are included as none have more than 1 million speakers.

Languages from	Africa	Americas	Arab world	Asia	Europe	Pacific	Not included	TOTAL
Internauts %	29,8%	56,7%	64,0%	49,3%	82,6%		47,06%	56,91%
Contents	2,89%	0,22%	3,09%	44,77%	45,39%		3,64%	100%
Virtual Presence	0,31	0,71	0,88	0,93	1,47		0,47	1
Contents Productivity	0,56	0,69	0,79	1,00	1,15		0,57	1
Speakers L1+L2	9,21%	0,31%	3,53%	48,24%	30,91%		7,81%	100%
%Connected speakers.	5,21%	0,32%	3,89%	44,63%	39,51%		6,36%	100%
Number of languages	138	8	1	135	47	0		329

Note: a formula error was detected and corrected May, 27th, 2022.

If you have downloaded the file ALL RESULTS V3 before that date, please reload it to have the error corrected.

This table shows that the Asian languages (and Arabic) has been growing strongly in the last years to overcome European languages in connected population,

with room for improvement in terms of connectivity and virtual presence.

It shows also that the gap with African languages is huge and growing, in urgent needs to be reduced.

THE CASE OF AFRICA

Following World Bank source, Africa is forecasted to double population by 2050 and this will Benefit European languages with African presence.

MAIN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES IN AFRICA

	L1+L2	% Total
English (*)	236 808 000	62.1%
French	109 245 420	28.7%
Portuguese	32 531 250	8.5%
Spanish	2 538 540	0.7%
Total	381 123 210

(*) Including 111 million in Nigeria

FRANCOPHONE AFRICA DIGITAL DIVIDE

	CONN.	CONN.	BROADBAND (**)
	UIT 2017	UIT/WB 2021	WB 2021
Bénin	14.12%	29.00%	0.25%
Burkina Faso	15.88%	18.00%	0.07%
Burundi	5.59%	5.00%	0.04%
Comores	8.48%		0.10%
Congo	8.65%	13.00%	0.01%
Guinée	11.40%	23.00%	0.01%
Guinée-Bissau	3.93%	28.00%	0.12%
Madagascar	9.80%	15.00%	0.10%
Mali	12.72%	26.00%	1.20%
Mauritanie	20.80%		0.41%
Mozambique	20.77%	15.00%	0.23%
Niger	10.22%	5.25%	0.04%
Rép. Centrafricaine	4.34%		0.01%
Rép. Démo. du Congo	8.62%	13.00%	0.01%
Rwanda	21.77%	26.00%	0.14%
Tchad	6.50%	10.00%	0.00%
Togo	12.36%	19.00%	0.64%

(**) For sake of comparison the world average for broadband % per country is 17% and France’s is 47%

THE CYBER-GLOBALIZATION INDICATOR

CGI (L) = (L1 +L2)/L1(L) x S(L) x C(L)

where:

L1+L2/L1 (L) is the ratio of multilingualism of language L

S(L) is the percentage of world countries which hold speakers of language L

C(L) is the % of speakers of language L connected to the Internet.

This is an indicator of the strategic advantages of a language in cyberspace.

In terms of %, English + French hold almost 25% of the weight, followed, somehow faraway, by German, Russian, Spanish and Arabic.

L1+L2 /L1 (English) = 3.64

English have speakers in 148 countries over 205

and its connectivity rate is currently 64.86%

L1+L2 /L1 (French) = 3.35

French have speakers in 108 countries over 205

and its connectivity rate is currently 65.80%

L1+L2 /L1 (Swahili) = 4.37 (second higher after Dioula)

Swahili have speakers in 22 countries over 205

and its connectivity rate is currently 20.35%

L1+L2 /L1 (German) = 1.76

German have speakers in 59 countries over 205

and its connectivity rate is currently 89.17%

CYBER-GLOBALIZATION INDICATOR

LANGUAGE	CGI	CGI%
English	1.61	14.24%
French	1.09	9.66%
German	0.42	3.75%
Russian	0.31	2.76%
Spanish	0.27	2.40%
Arabic	0.18	1.56%
Malay	0.17	1.51%
Italian	0.17	1.50%
Chinese	0.16	1.46%
Portuguese	0.15	1.37%
Thaï	0.15	1.37%
Romani	0.15	1.35%
Turkish	0.15	1.34%
Greek	0.15	1.31%
Ukranian	0.15	1.31%
Polish	0.13	1.15%
Persian	0.12	1.10%
Rumanian	0.12	1.06%
Hindi	0.12	1.04%

MORE CONNECTED COUNTRIES FOR LANGUAGES WITH HIGHER CONTENT PERCENTAGES

CHINESE	L1+L2	%CONN. CONNECTED		% FROM CONN.
TOTAL	1 525 335 340	71.38%	1 088 735 519	100%
China	1 448 870 000	70.64%	1 023 512 815	94.01%
China–Taiwan	37 320 000	88.82%	33 148 541	3.04%
China–Hong Kong	10 942 800	92.41%	10 112 585	0.93%
Malaysia	7 838 700	89.56%	7 019 949	0.64%
Singapore	4 026 000	75.88%	3 054 766	0.28%
United States	2 894 390	88.50%	2 561 503	0.24%
Viet Nam	2 500 000	70.64%	1 766 054	0.16%
Indonesia	2 054 000	53.73%	1 103 542	0.10%
Thailand	1 729 000	77.84%	1 345 918	0.12%
Canada	1 212 600	97.00%	1 176 222	0.11%
Philippines	1 010 280	43.03%	434 689	0.04%
REST	4 937 570	71.04%	3 507 738	0.32%

ENGLISH				% FROM
	L1+L2	%CONN.	CONNECTED	CONN
TOTAL	1 348 145 140	64.86%	874 405 129	100%
United States	297 400 000	88.50%	263 195 738	30.10%
India	265 260 000	41.00%	108 756 600	12.44%
United Kingdom	60 020 000	94.82%	56 910 964	6.51%
Germany	45 840 000	89.81%	41 170 252	4.71%
Nigeria	111 000 000	34.00%	37 740 000	4.32%
Canada	30 000 000	97.00%	29 100 000	3.33%
Philippines	50 028 700	43.03%	21 525 655	2.46%
France	25 436 000	83.34%	21 198 297	2.42%
Egypt	28 119 000	71.91%	20 221 554	2.31%
Australia	22 200 000	86.54%	19 212 928	2.20%
Italy	20 700 000	74.39%	15 398 147	1.76%
Netherlands	15 377 800	91.33%	14 045 057	1.61%
Poland	12 780 900	86.84%	11 098 541	1.27%
China	15 620 000	70.64%	11 034 303	1.26%
South Africa	15 890 000	68.00%	10 805 200	1.24%
Spain	10 528 000	93.21%	9 812 690	1.12%
Japan	10 074 000	92.73%	9 341 660	1.07%
Malaysia	9 633 900	89.56%	8 627 640	0.99%
REST	302 236 840	54.66%	165 209 902	18.89%

SPANISH				% FROM
	L1+L2	%CONN.	CONNECTED	CONN
TOTAL	542 894 260	73.72%	400 234 474	92.78%
Mexico	125 000 000	71.97%	89 962 500	22.48%
United States	59 600 000	88.50%	52 745 346	13.18%
Spain	46 490 000	93.21%	43 331 305	10.83%
Argentina	45 160 000	85.50%	38 611 800	9.65%
Colombia	48 984 000	65.01%	31 842 980	7.96%
Venezuela	28 162 000	67.00%	18 868 540	4.71%
Peru	28 120 000	65.25%	18 348 806	4.58%
Chile	19 083 000	85.00%	16 220 550	4.05%
Ecuador	16 990 000	57.00%	9 684 300	2.42%
Dominican Republic	10 464 200	74.82%	7 829 763	1.96%
Cuba	11 122 800	67.97%	7 560 257	1.89%
Guatemala	15 840 000	44.00%	6 969 600	1.74%
Bolivia	11 470 000	55.14%	6 324 449	1.58%
France	6 451 000	83.34%	5 376 247	1.34%
Paraguay	6 700 000	74.52%	4 992 521	1.25%
Brazil	6 107 000	73.91%	4 513 833	1.13%
United Kingdom	4 294 000	94.82%	4 071 571	1.02%
Costa Rica	5 055 400	80.53%	4 071 123	1.02%
REST	47 800 860	60.48%	28 908 983	7.22%

HINDI	L1+L2	%CONN.	CONNECTED	% FROM CONN.
TOTAL	600 800 970	41.15%	247 258 401	100%
India	596 000 000	41.00%	244 360 000	98.87%
Kuwait	700 000	98.60%	690 200	0.28%
United States	643 000	88.50%	569 048	0.23%
Nepal	1 307 600	25.00%	326 900	0.13%
South Africa	463 000	68.00%	314 840	0.13%
Saudi Arabia	171 000	97.86%	167 345	0.07%
Australia	160 000	86.54%	138 472	0.06%
Canada	111 000	97.00%	107 670	0.04%
Yemen	316 000	30.00%	94 800	0.04%
REST	929 370	52.63%	489 127	0.20%

RUSSIAN	L1+L2	%CONN.	CONNECTED	% FROM CONN
TOTAL	258 034 160	80.32%	207 258 366	100.00%
Russian Federation	138 000 000	84.99%	117 292 644	56.59%
Ukraine	39 100 000	70.00%	27 370 000	13.21%
Kazakhstan	16 800 000	85.94%	14 438 357	6.97%
Uzbekistan	11 800 000	55.20%	6 513 600	3.14%
Poland	6 941 900	86.84%	6 028 133	2.91%
Belarus	6 978 000	85.09%	5 937 435	2.86%
Germany	5 400 000	89.81%	4 849 899	2.34%
Azerbaijan	4 882 000	81.10%	3 959 302	1.91%
Lithuania	2 460 000	83.06%	2 043 168	0.99%
Georgia	2 376 200	72.53%	1 723 496	0.83%
Czechia	2 000 000	81.34%	1 626 778	0.78%
Latvia	1 775 000	88.90%	1 577 939	0.76%
Moldova	1 714 000	80.00%	1 371 200	0.66%
Kyrgyzstan	2 868 000	42.00%	1 204 560	0.58%
Bulgaria	1 675 800	70.16%	1 175 783	0.57%
Slovakia	1 300 000	89.92%	1 168 972	0.56%
Serbia	1 400 000	78.37%	1 097 153	0.53%
Armenia	1 613 500	66.54%	1 073 687	0.52%
REST	8 949 760	76.05%	6 806 264	3.28%

FRENCH	L1+L2	%CONN. CONNECTED		% FROM CONN
TOTAL	266 959 240	64.28%	171 595 428	100%
France	63 900 000	83.34%	53 254 096	31.03%
United Kingdom	12 767 000	92.52%	11 811 598	6.88%
Germany	12 540 000	88.13%	11 052 068	6.44%
Canada	10 980 000	91.00%	9 991 800	5.82%
Morocco	12 705 400	74.38%	9 449 808	5.51%
Belgium	9 570 000	90.28%	8 639 796	5.03%
Algeria	13 814 300	60.00%	8 288 580	4.83%
Italy	9 756 000	74.39%	7 257 214	4.23%
Switzerland	5 732 000	93.15%	5 339 134	3.11%
Tunisia	6 081 200	66.70%	4 056 160	2.36%
Netherlands	3 227 900	93.29%	3 011 262	1.75%
Côte d'Ivoire	8 235 000	36.29%	2 988 395	1.74%
Cameroon	10 000 000	25.00%	2 500 000	1.46%
Portugal	2 590 600	75.35%	1 951 923	1.14%
Senegal	4 210 000	46.00%	1 936 600	1.13%
Spain	2 108 000	90.72%	1 912 349	1.11%
United States	2 123 000	88.50%	1 878 832	1.09%
Lebanon	2 311 800	78.18%	1 807 383	1.05%
Romania	2 340 000	73.66%	1 723 585	1.00%
Egypt	3 000 000	57.28%	1 718 486	1.00%
REST	68 967 040	30.49%	21 026 357	12.25%

PORTUGUESE				% FROM
	L1+L2	%CONN.	CONNECTED	CONN
TOTAL	257 646 480	68.43%	176 297 289	100.00%
Brazil	211 200 000	73.91%	156 103 073	88.55%
Portugal	9 900 000	78.26%	7 747 904	4.39%
Angola	18 100 000	36.00%	6 516 000	3.70%
Mozambique	13 130 000	15.00%	1 969 500	1.12%
France	959 000	83.34%	799 228	0.45%
United States	693 000	88.50%	613 297	0.35%
Japan	270 000	92.73%	250 372	0.14%
Cape Verde Islands	367 800	61.94%	227 828	0.13%
Canada	222 000	97.00%	215 340	0.12%
South Africa	300 000	68.00%	204 000	0.12%
Switzerland	210 000	93.15%	195 607	0.11%
Spain	196 000	93.21%	182 683	0.10%
REST	2 098 680	60.63%	1 272 456	0.72%

ARABIC	L1+L2	%CONN.	CONNECTED	% CONN
TOTAL	366 212 980	63.99%	234 333 349	100.00%
Egypt	99 917 000	71.91%	71 854 512	30.66%
Saudi Arabia	28 314 000	97.86%	27 708 741	11.82%
Morocco	27 900 000	84.12%	23 469 581	10.02%
Iraq	27 202 200	75.00%	20 401 650	8.71%
Algeria	31 535 000	58.00%	18 290 300	7.81%
Sudan	39 235 000	25.00%	9 808 750	4.19%
Yemen	27 850 800	30.00%	8 355 240	3.57%
Tunisia	11 452 000	66.70%	7 638 484	3.26%
Jordan	8 175 000	70.00%	5 722 500	2.44%
Syria	16 561 600	34.25%	5 672 911	2.42%
United Arab Emirates	5 258 400	100.00%	5 258 400	2.24%
Lebanon	6 711 700	78.18%	5 247 259	2.24%
Kuwait	3 457 000	98.60%	3 408 602	1.45%
Oman	3 217 900	95.23%	3 064 480	1.31%
Palestine	4 088 800	70.62%	2 887 617	1.23%
France	2 937 000	83.34%	2 447 688	1.04%
REST	22 399 580	58.47%	13 096 633	5.59%

GERMAN	L1+L2	%CONN.	CONNECTED	FROM % CONN
TOTAL	132 942 800	89.24%	118 633 071	100.00%
Germany	80 600 000	89.81%	72 389 231	60.14%
Netherlands	12 373 300	91.33%	11 300 947	9.39%
Poland	7 263 600	86.84%	6 307 487	5.24%
United Kingdom	4 067 200	94.82%	3 856 519	3.20%
France	4 000 000	83.34%	3 333 590	2.77%
Denmark	2 777 800	96.55%	2 681 942	2.23%
Sweden	2 681 400	94.54%	2 534 980	2.11%
Belgium	2 582 700	91.52%	2 363 796	1.96%
Russian Federation	2 070 000	84.99%	1 759 390	1.46%
Hungary	1 795 200	84.77%	1 521 812	1.26%
Czechia	1 624 100	81.34%	1 321 025	1.10%
Croatia	1 462 990	78.32%	1 145 827	0.95%
Slovakia	1 205 190	89.92%	1 083 718	0.90%
Italy	1 276 000	74.39%	949 180	0.79%
United States	1 060 000	88.50%	938 088	0.78%
REST	8 153 560	84.44%	6 884 636	5.72%

JAPANESE	L1+L2	%CONN.	CONNECTED	FROM % CONN
TOTAL	126 378 610	92.63%	117 064 241	100.0%
Japan	125 000 000	92.73%	115 912 997	99.02%
United States	449 000	88.50%	397 360	0.34%
Brazil	380 000	73.91%	280 867	0.24%
Hong Kong	127 050	92.41%	117 411	0.10%
Thailand	70 700	77.84%	55 036	0.05%
Australia	56 000	86.54%	48 465	0.04%
REST	295 860	85.21%	252 104	0.22%

See the introduction

Read the basic methodological note

Compare with other similar data (W3Techs and InternetWorldStats)

Acess the full results for all 329 languages by downloading corresponding Excel files

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