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Internet Language Use Statistics

The below table of Internet language use statistics represents how many millions of actual internet users are native language speakers to the languages listed.

I have organized the data so that you can see at a glance which countries / languages have the largest online representation.

There are many factors that went into gathering these statistics, for example there are many non-english speakers in America, these individuals are considered for each of their respective languages, as are all the other languages (immigrants) distributed throughout the world. There is also bilingual overlap, these factors were taken into consideration.

Further down this page you can find a very detailed explanation of how each Internet language was counted and the sources that provided the information if this interests you.

My only contribution is in the organization of this data, and some percentages math. There are more than twenty sites and agencies that made this list possible… in all respect, it is only fair that I list them all.

Contributors to the Internet language use statistics...

This information has the potential to change your business life...

 Translation Sevices


Internet Language Use
Languages# Users (M)% of Internet
English235 m38.3 %
Chinese69 m11.2 %
Japanese61.4 m10 %
German42 m6.8 %
Spanish32.7 m5.5 %
Korean25.2 m4.1 %
Italian24 m3.9 %
French22 m3.5 %
Portuguese19 m3.1 %
Russian18.1 m3 %
Dutch12.4 m2 %
Polish6.7 m1.1 %
Swedish6 m1 %
Arabic5.7 m1 %
Malay4.8 m0.8 %
Turkish4 m0.7 %
Danish3.4 m0.6 %
Norwegian2.5 m0.4 %
Thai2.3 m0.4 %
Czech2.2 m0.4 %
Finnish2.1 m0.3 %
Catalan2 m0.3 %
Greek2 m0.3 %
Hebrew2 m0.3 %
Romanian2 m0.3 %
Vietnamese1.5 m0.2 %
Hungarian1.2 m0.2 %
Iceland.9 m0.1 %
Slovak750 k0.1 %
Slovenian700 k0.1 %

This is very powerful information that can easily be taken for granted in this internet age. Please don't take it for granted, a lot of people worked hard to gather this Internet language use info, and it is now available for you in two clicks.

Click here to go my International Online Spending page to see how much each of the above countries is spending online presently.

Click here to go to International Online Growth Projections for 2004 - 2005, a page that lists language percentages for online users and spending projections for each country for the years 2004 - 2005.

Global Internet Statistics: Sources & References Details

General: The figures in the first column are not meant to represent the number of people who speak the languages in question. They correspond to the number of people online in each language (i.e. native speakers), in millions.

There is some overlap between English and non-English figures, since many Americans access the Web in two languages. Out of the 45 M people living in the U.S. for whom English is not the family language, we estimate that 15 M cannot speak English at all, and the other 30 M can access Web content in their native language and in English (to varying degrees). Overlap in other countries is also taken into account, since some people in these countries access the Internet in two languages.

Language use in the U.S./Canada: many of the people who access the Internet outside the English language live in the U.S./Canada (that is, when they access it from home; at work they most likely access the Net in English). In 2000, these were the figures for Americans who spoke other languages at home besides English (2000 U.S. Census figures):

  • Spanish: 26.7 M
  • Chinese: 2.0 M
  • Czech: 1.45 M
  • French: 1.4 M
  • German: 1.2 M
  • Vietnamese: 994 K
  • Korean: 894 K
  • Italian: 880 K
  • Russian: 684 K
  • Polish: 654 K
  • Arabic: 596 K
  • Portuguese: 582 K
  • Japanese: 468 K
  • Greek 309 K
  • Farsi: 287 K
  • Hebrew: 189 K
  • Scandinavian languages: 139 K
  • Hungarian 116 K

According to the Census Bureau's report (slide 7): "Of the 4.1 million Asians, 56% did not speaking English 'very well', and 35% were linguistically isolated." The logical conclusion is that they read newspapers in their own language, most likely they want to access the Internet in their own language too. These linguistic populations can be served better in their own language than in English, since they are bound to access the Internet in their native language (at home). Our estimate is that there are some 27 M Americans who are more likely to access the Internet at home in their own language rather than in English.

European Languages:
(1) English:

  • U.S. — There are 165.2 M Americans now online, acc. to Nielsen/NetRatings (May, 2002). Since there are 45 M Americans who do not speak English at home, we have to assume that they also access the Internet in their own native language. Ethnologue estimates that 8.4 M Americans cannot read English (out of the 45 M non-English-speaking people in the U.S.), so only 160 M Americans access the Internet in English.
  • Canada has 17.0 M people online, most of whom can access the Internet in English, according to Nielsen NetRatings Feb., 2002)
  • Australia has 10.6 M (Nielsen NetRatings Feb., 2002)
  • The U.K. has 33 M people online (Source: Jupiter MMXI, August, 2001).
  • Ireland has 1.07 M people online (Source: Amarach Consulting, Aug., 2002).
  • South Africa has 3.1 M people online (Source: ITU: Dec., 2001)
  • New Zealand has 1.95 M people online (Nielsen NetRatings, Feb., 2002)

Non-native-English-speaking countries where many people use English to access the Internet:

  • India: 7 M (the ITU, Dec., 2001)
  • Pakistan: 1.2 M (ISPAK, May, 2000)
  • The Philippines: 2.0 M(ITU, Dec., 2001)

Adding up these figures yields 231 M people online who access the Internet in English.

(2) Catalan: 20% of Spaniards speak Catalan as a native language (i.e. 8 M out of 40 M), which makes it a more numerous linguistic population than any Scandinavian country except Sweden. Hence 1.9 M Catalans are online.

(3) Czech: 2.2 M (source: GfK, June, 2002).

(4) Dutch: The latest figures from Nielsen NetRatings state that there are 9.7 M people online in Netherlands (Aug., 2002). Among the 3.4 M people online in Belgium (see latest survey from GfK and InSites), three-quarters of them, or 2.6 M, are Flemish (that is, Dutch-speaking). Combined Dutch-speaking online populations is 12.4 M.

(5) Finnish: There are 2.06 M people online in Finland, according to Nielsen NetRatings (Feb., 2002).

(6) French: There are 17 M people in France online (source: the study "Baromètres Multimédia" of MédiaMétrie, Dec., 2001). French-speaking Canada follows at 2.3 M people online (according to The Daily Statistics (Canada), March, 2001. One must add 0.76 M French-speakers in Switzerland (23% of the 3.41 M Swiss online, according to Nielsen NetRatings marketing research, July, 2001). Among the 3.4 M people online in Belgium (see latest survey from GfK and InSites), one-quarter of them, or 0.9 M, are from the French-speaking provinces. Next to Belgium, Luxembourg has 100 K people online (source: ITU, Dec., 2001). Another 95 K Americans who access the Internet in French (50% of the French-speaking American population). (We will not count the French-speaking users in Africa, although there are a good 7 to 10 M Africans who speak French there: Internet access is simply not readily available in most African countries.) This gives a total of 22.0 M French-speaking people online worldwide.

(7) German: Nielsen NetRatings reported that there are 35.2 M Germans online (Aug., 2002), to which one must add 2.4 K German-speakers in Switzerland (72% of the 3.41 M Swiss online, according to Nielsen NetRatings marketing research, July, 2001) and 3.7 M in Austria (according to the Integral and Fessel-GfK, Aug., 2002). We estimate another 750 K Americans who access the Internet in German from home. Finally, there is 1% of Italy that is German-speaking (thus 90 K German-speakers online in Italy). This gives a total of 42.0 M German-speaking people online worldwide.

(8) Greek: 1.4 M Greeks online, according to the (ITU, Dec., 2001). There are another 150 K people online in Cyprus (ITU). We estimate another 160 K Americans who access the Internet in Greek from home. This gives a total of 2 M Greeks online worldwide.

(9) Hungarian: There are 1.48 M people in Hungary online, accord to the ITU (Dec., 2001), and another 60 K Hungarians online in the U.S.

(10) Italian: A study by Nielsen NetRatings indicates that 22.6 million Italians are online (Aug., 2002). We estimate another 520 K Americans who access the Internet in Italian from home, to which one must add 120 K Italian-speakers in Switzerland (5% of the 3.41 M Swiss online, according to Nielsen NetRatings marketing research, May, 2001), and another 100 K Italians online living in Australia. This gives 24.0 M Italian-speaking people online worldwide.

(11) Polish: 6.4 M people from Poland are online, according to the ARC Rynek i Opinia (Oct., 2001). We estimate another 290 K Americans who access the Internet in Polish from home. That makes a total of 6.7 M Polish-speakers online worldwide.

(12) Portuguese: There are some 14 Brazilians online, according to Business News Americas (June, 2002). To this must be added another 4.4 M in Portugal (source: Anacom, June, 2002). We estimate another 172 K Americans who access the Internet in Portuguese from home. Total estimated Portuguese-language online users: 19 M

(13) Romanian: There are 2.0 M Romanians online, according to NUA Surveys (June, 2002).

(14) Russian: The The Russian IT public centre (ROCIT) . estimates that there are 18 M Russians online (Dec., 2001). Two-thirds of them are in the greater Moscow area. We estimate another 0.1 M Americans who access the Internet in Russian from home. Total estimated Russian online users: 18.1 M.

(15) Scandinavian languages: Nielsen NetRatings reports that there are 6.0 M Swedes online (Aug., 2002). Nielsen NetRatings estimates that there are 2.45 M Norwegians online (Feb., 2002). Nielsen NetRatings reports that 3.4 M people online in Denmark (May, 2002). ITU reports 0.9 M people online in Iceland (Dec., 2001).

(16) Slovak: ITU reports 650 K people online in the Slovak Republic (Dec., 2001).

(17) Slovenian: eMarketer reports 600 K Slovenians online (Dec., 2000)

(18) Spanish: Research by the Spanish research association AINC shows over 9.4 M people online in Spain (Dec., 2001). (10% of these would access the Internet in Catalan.) Latest estimates show 6.7 M people online in Mexico (source: Nielsen NetRatings, April, 2001). Within the U.S., 50% of Hispanics Americans are online (17.5 M, according to the Pew Internet & American Life; July, 2001), out of the total 35 M Hispanics living in the U.S. See (here for details of Latin American countries. Adding all Spanish-speaking online populations yields _ M Spanish-speaking people online worldwide.

(19) Turkish: There are 3.7 M people online in Turkey (Source: IBS Research, May, 2001), to which should be added another 360 K Turks in Germany who are online (2 M Turks live in Germany). This makes 3.9 Turkish-speakers are online.

Asian Languages Details coming soon

Click here to go my International Online Spending page to see how much each of the above countries is spending online presently.

Click here to go to International Online Growth Projections for 2004 - 2005, a page that lists language percentages for online users and spending projections for each country for the years 2004 - 2005

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