Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions

Languages and Internet

How are languages represented on the Internet?


Answer:

According to the latest statistics of the marketing communications consultancy Global Reach, there are 649 Million people online today, making use of the following languages:


Global Internet Statistics by Language: evolution since 1996, in millions (source: Global Reach)

(end of year)

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

Spanish

0

1

2

13

21

35

50

60

Japanese

2

7

9

20

39

48

61

74

German

1

4

6

14

22

37

43

53

French

0

2

3

10

17

18

23

31

Chinese

0

1

2

10

31

48

78

120

Scandinavian

2

2

3

8

9

11

16

15

Italian

0

1

2

10

12

20

24

30

Dutch

0

1

2

6

7

11

13

12

Korean

0

0

1

5

17

25

28

35

Portuguese

0

0

1

4

11

14

19

26

Other Non-English:

11

15

6.4

29

41

64

81

English

40

72

91

148

192

231

234

260

Total Non-English:

10

45

71

109

211

307

418

540

TOTAL*:

50

117

151

245

391

529

627

782

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Web Content, by Language

Chart of Web content, by language

English

68.4%

Japanese

5.9%

German

5.8%

Chinese

3.9%

French

3.0%

Spanish

2.4%

Russian

1.9%

Italian

1.6%

Portuguese

1.4%

Korean

1.3%

Other

4.6%

 For more information, please see the Global Reach website at
http://global-reach.biz/globstats/index.php3

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