Top Ten Languages on the Internet

Posted by Diane Farrug Jun 25, 2008

Nowadays, the Internet is a communication force to be reckoned with. So, of course, I became curious about what languages people are using out here on the Net. I turned to the authority on the subject, Internet World Stats. This website has been collecting information about Internet usage since 2002.

Ready for some good 'ol fashioned facts and figures?

Let's start with the total number of Internet users in the world. As of April, 2008, the magic number is 1,407,724,920. This figure represents an impressive 21% of the entire world's population, including (finally) my parents.

And just what are those 1,407,724,920 people reading and writing? Here are statistics for the top ten languages used on the Internet:

1. English (427 million users, 30.4% of all Internet users)
2. Chinese (233 million users, 16.6% of all Internet users)
3. Spanish (122 million users, 8.7% of all Internet users)
4. Japanese (94 million users, 6.7% of all Internet users)
5. French (67 million users, 4.8% of all Internet users)
6. German (64 million users, 4.5% of all Internet users)
7. Arabic (60 million users, 4.2% of all Internet users)
8. Portuguese (58 million users, 4.1% of all Internet users)
9. Korean (35 million users, 2.5% of all Internet users)
10. Italian (34 million users, 2.4% of all Internet users)

Other languages not listed in the Top Ten account for 15.2% of all Internet users.

Every language is experiencing Internet growth. Between 2000-2008, the use of English has grown 201.1% and Chinese has grown 622%. The prize for the fastest growing language online is Arabic, with an increase of 2062.2% over these past eight years. In fact, the Middle East and Africa are the largest growing geographical areas jumping into cyberspace.

The Internet is shrinking our world like never before. Millions of fascinating people are just a keystroke away. Communicate with them. Learn a foreign language.