The Language Each Country Wants to Learn the Most, Mapped

Which languages spark the most interest in people from different countries?

Researchers at Wordtips created a list of the 50 most common languages worldwide to figure out which ones people want to learn most. After calculating each country’s monthly Google search volume for queries related to learning each language, they plugged the data into the map below. You can click here to see an enlarged version of the image.

English is the top choice in most countries, with 63 of them searching for the language above others. Although it’s still the most common option, the language’s popularity has declined since 2021. In that year, 98 countries wanted to learn English. According to the EF English Proficiency Index [PDF], the dip in appeal is likely due to “political and demographic shifts,” along with a growing skepticism of Western domination in education.

The data is easier to process when broken down by region. In North and Central America, seven countries—including Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala—want to learn English the most. Spanish was the most-searched language in five countries, such as the U.S. and Panama.

Six South American countries want to learn English the most. Many countries in the northern part of the continent, like Ecuador and Colombia, favor it above others. Meanwhile, Italian reigns in the southern end, as Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile are searching for ways to learn the language.

Almost half of the 42 European countries surveyed prioritized learning English. Such places include Austria, Sweden, and Belarus. Twelve countries on the continent picked German as the language they’d most like to speak; Croatia and Denmark are only a few of them.

English is the top language residents want to learn in seven countries in the Middle East and Central Asia. The language specifically appeals to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and others. But it’s not the most-searched language in the region overall. That distinction belongs to Arabic, with 10 countries —like Jordan, Iraq, and Kuwait—lining up to learn it. 

In the rest of Asia and Oceania, Korean is the most popular language. It dominates Google search data in nine countries, including India, Singapore, and Bangladesh. English comes in second place, with Thailand, Japan, Pakistan, and others searching for it. 

Last we have Africa, with 16 countries—like Tanzania, Angola, and Zambia—wanting to learn English. French, Zulu, German, and Arabic appear elsewhere on the map of the continent.

Wordtips also made a map of the second-most sought-after languages per country as shown below. For a larger version, click here.

In addition to being the most-searched language worldwide, English was also the second-most popular with 30 countries wanting to learn it behind their first choices. Twenty-one countries searched for German, followed by 13 looking for Spanish and 11 for Arabic.

The most-searched language in a major city doesn’t necessarily correlate with its home country’s broader trends. After examining the maps above, check out this map of the language each city wants to learn the most.

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