Language power

Every metro's power, credited in full to each language its people can use.

As of 28 Oct 2026 · Metro Power scores, Unicode CLDR, national censuses

Top language, share of world power

English, 45.1%

Languages with power

326

Most concentrated of the top 15

Japanese, 7 metros to 80%

Most multilingual place

Pakistan, 2.98

Languages by metro power

Each language's power: the Metro Power of every metro where its speakers live.

How this is measured

Every metro's score counts in full for each language its people can use, so bilingual cities count twice and shares overlap. Shares cover first and second language, from census figures where measured, else Unicode CLDR.

Sort by

English

2,672 metros · top: London

5,732

45.1% of world

Mandarin Chinese

197 metros · top: Beijing

1,745

13.7% of world

Spanish

833 metros · top: Madrid

1,446

11.4% of world

French

959 metros · top: Paris

1,099

8.6% of world

German

450 metros · top: Rhine-Ruhr

904

7.1% of world

Standard Arabic

211 metros · top: Dubai-Sharjah

499

3.9% of world

Italian

120 metros · top: Milan

456

3.6% of world

Portuguese

278 metros · top: Sao Paulo

387

3.0% of world

Japanese

59 metros · top: Tokyo

359

2.8% of world

Russian

553 metros · top: Moscow

351

2.8% of world

Korean

25 metros · top: Seoul

260

2.0% of world

Dutch

76 metros · top: Amsterdam

256

2.0% of world

#	Language						Top metro
1	English	5,732	45.1%	2,672	3.32	268	London
2	Mandarin Chinese	1,745	13.7%	197	1.33	65	Beijing
3	Spanish	1,446	11.4%	833	2.82	165	Madrid
4	French	1,099	8.6%	959	3.26	133	Paris
5	German	904	7.1%	450	6.32	64	Rhine-Ruhr
6	Standard Arabic	499	3.9%	211	1.26	44	Dubai-Sharjah
7	Italian	456	3.6%	120	6.61	43	Milan
8	Portuguese	387	3.0%	278	1.57	38	Sao Paulo
9	Japanese	359	2.8%	59	3.04	7	Tokyo
10	Russian	351	2.8%	553	1.66	84	Moscow
11	Korean	260	2.0%	25	3.33	7	Seoul
12	Dutch	256	2.0%	76	7.74	20	Amsterdam
13	Yue Chinese	180	1.4%	2	2.20	35	Hong Kong
14	Turkish	164	1.3%	93	1.94	21	Istanbul
15	Hindi	160	1.3%	91	0.27	44	Mumbai
16	Polish	153	1.2%	71	3.77	32	Warsaw
17	Swedish	126	1.0%	110	9.40	11	Stockholm
18	Urdu	107	0.8%	14	0.35	39	Lahore
19	Wu Chinese	97.1	0.8%	0	1.15	55	Beijing
20	Eastern Panjabi	89.8	0.7%	14	0.42	43	Lahore
21	Modern Greek	89.4	0.7%	60	7.24	14	Athens
22	Standard Malay	87.0	0.7%	17	2.34	5	Kuala Lumpur
23	Min Nan Chinese	86.0	0.7%	6	2.13	22	Taipei
24	Standard Indonesian	81.5	0.6%	36	0.44	11	Jakarta
25	Vietnamese	78.5	0.6%	20	0.87	18	Ho Chi Minh City
26	Bengali	78.5	0.6%	13	0.28	28	Dhaka
27	Eastern Low German	70.3	0.6%	116	5.85	19	Rhine-Ruhr
28	Danish	69.5	0.5%	32	9.51	10	Copenhagen
29	Norwegian	68.2	0.5%	30	12.10	6	Oslo
30	Thai	66.8	0.5%	22	1.27	3	Bangkok
31	Western Farsi	63.6	0.5%	44	0.70	31	Tehran
32	Modern Hebrew	61.8	0.5%	16	5.88	3	Tel-Aviv
33	Filipino	60.0	0.5%	15	0.84	22	Manila
34	Catalan	56.5	0.4%	105	6.54	17	Madrid
35	Tamil	56.3	0.4%	9	0.61	75	London
36	Czech	54.5	0.4%	59	4.12	10	Prague
37	Swahili	50.4	0.4%	56	0.26	12	Nairobi
38	Egyptian Arabic	50.2	0.4%	28	0.72	5	Cairo
39	Hakka Chinese	49.7	0.4%	6	1.42	48	Taipei
40	Xiang Chinese	46.9	0.4%	0	1.15	55	Beijing
41	Finnish	46.8	0.4%	36	7.99	5	Helsinki
42	Romanian	46.3	0.4%	64	2.16	47	Bucharest
43	Levantine Arabic	45.3	0.4%	42	0.96	11	Beirut
44	Javanese	42.7	0.3%	36	0.43	9	Jakarta
45	Hungarian	42.1	0.3%	53	3.46	10	Budapest
46	Gujarati	39.5	0.3%	0	0.59	84	London
47	North Azerbaijani	35.5	0.3%	47	1.12	8	Baku
48	Ukrainian	31.6	0.2%	69	1.52	34	Kyiv
49	Serbian Standard	31.3	0.2%	65	3.91	12	Belgrade
50	Moroccan Arabic	29.9	0.2%	17	0.93	5	Rabat
51	Tagalog	29.2	0.2%	0	10.91	58	San Francisco-San Jose
52	Telugu	29.2	0.2%	0	0.28	50	Mumbai
53	Croatian Standard	28.0	0.2%	59	4.28	18	Zagreb
54	Gan Chinese	27.5	0.2%	0	1.15	55	Beijing
55	Lombard	26.7	0.2%	0	7.16	23	Milan
56	Zulu	26.6	0.2%	24	1.70	4	Johannesburg
57	Western Panjabi	24.5	0.2%	14	0.25	7	Lahore
58	Marathi	23.5	0.2%	0	0.23	23	Mumbai
59	Kazakh	22.6	0.2%	23	1.51	11	Astana
60	Galician	22.2	0.2%	0	6.36	16	Madrid
61	Albanian	22.1	0.2%	72	3.39	30	Tirana
62	Central Khmer	20.7	0.2%	5	1.30	2	Phnom Penh
63	Malayalam	20.6	0.2%	0	0.44	24	Dubai-Sharjah
64	Xhosa	19.8	0.2%	22	1.74	3	Johannesburg
65	Northeastern Thai	19.7	0.2%	22	1.25	3	Bangkok
66	Kurdish	17.5	0.1%	10	1.37	38	Istanbul
67	Sinhala	17.2	0.1%	8	1.15	4	Colombo
68	Slovak	16.6	0.1%	59	2.48	17	Prague
69	Cebuano	16.5	0.1%	15	0.60	2	Manila
70	Afrikaans	16.4	0.1%	26	1.56	5	Johannesburg
71	Pashto	16.4	0.1%	23	0.28	11	Lahore
72	Haitian	16.1	0.1%	3	1.51	45	Port-au-Prince
73	Uzbek	16.1	0.1%	16	0.45	9	Tashkent
74	Bulgarian	15.4	0.1%	25	2.07	13	Sofia
75	Scots	14.9	0.1%	0	8.59	23	London
76	Eastern Armenian	14.9	0.1%	8	2.51	27	Yerevan
77	Sundanese	14.3	0.1%	36	0.41	8	Jakarta
78	Tunisian Arabic	14.3	0.1%	13	1.33	3	Tunis
79	Georgian	13.0	0.1%	20	3.62	3	Tbilisi
80	Algerian Arabic	12.9	0.1%	21	0.33	8	Algiers
81	Quechua	12.9	0.1%	46	1.09	8	Lima
82	Occitan	12.9	0.1%	0	6.22	24	Paris
83	Kannada	12.4	0.1%	0	0.23	23	Mumbai
84	Lithuanian	11.8	0.1%	15	4.46	6	Vilnius
85	Western Flemish	11.5	0.1%	31	9.61	5	Brussels
86	Irish	10.7	0.1%	16	8.19	4	Dublin
87	Odia	10.6	0.1%	0	0.23	22	Mumbai
88	Tswana	10.6	0.1%	4	1.59	5	Johannesburg
89	Pedi	10.4	0.1%	0	1.75	3	Johannesburg
90	Bosnian Standard	10.2	0.1%	26	2.81	8	Sarajevo
91	Sindhi	10.1	0.1%	14	0.25	9	Lahore
92	Slovenian	10.1	0.1%	17	5.03	6	Ljubljana
93	Sichuan Yi	9.7	0.1%	0	1.15	55	Beijing
94	Uighur	9.5	0.1%	0	1.17	59	Beijing
95	Southern Sotho	9.2	0.1%	2	1.30	4	Johannesburg
96	Nigerian Pidgin	9.0	0.1%	32	0.19	11	Lagos
97	Maltese	8.8	0.1%	2	15.27	1	Valletta-Malta Island
98	Bhojpuri	8.8	0.1%	0	0.25	26	Mumbai
99	Limburgan	8.3	0.1%	0	8.30	7	Amsterdam
100	Nepali	8.2	0.1%	10	0.38	19	Kathmandu

Where each language holds power

Power by country for the chosen language: the Metro Power of its metros there.

Language

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Small territories are not drawn at this scale.

The most multilingual places

Effective working languages, nationally: the sum of each language's share of people who can use it.

How this is measured

Each language at 10% or more counts at its share, capped at 100%, and the total is divided by 100. Working languages are those that 25% or more of people can use. A country row stands for all its metros, which share the national figure.

Sort by

Pakistan

14 metros · Urdu 95%, Eastern Panjabi 70%, English 50%, Western Panjabi 40%

2.98

power 61.3

Luxembourg

4 metros · French 92%, Moselle Franconian 67%, German 63%, English 56%

2.94

power 11.1

Netherlands

43 metros · Dutch 100%, English 90%, German 71%

2.91

power 151

Lebanon

2 metros · Levantine Arabic 100%, Standard Arabic 86%, English 40%, French 38%

2.64

power 9.9

Malta

2 metros · Maltese 100%, English 88%, Italian 56%

2.57

power 8.8

Slovenia

17 metros · Slovenian 87%, Croatian Standard 61%, English 59%, German 42%

2.49

power 10.4

Denmark

31 metros · Danish 93%, English 86%, German 47%

2.39

power 64.8

Hong Kong

1 metro · Mandarin Chinese 95%, Yue Chinese 90%, English 51%

2.36

power 68.6

Mauritius

2 metros · Morisyen 90%, French 73%, English 72%

2.35

power 6.2

Israel

16 metros · Modern Hebrew 100%, English 85%

2.33

power 59.0

Tunisia

13 metros · Standard Arabic 90%, Tunisian Arabic 90%, French 53%

2.33

power 15.9

Finland

26 metros · Finnish 94%, English 70%, Swedish 44%

2.26

power 45.7

#
1	Pakistan14 metros	2.98	61.3	Urdu 95%Eastern Panjabi 70%English 50%Western Panjabi 40%
2	Luxembourg4 metros	2.94	11.1	French 92%Moselle Franconian 67%German 63%English 56%
3	Netherlands43 metros	2.91	151	Dutch 100%English 90%German 71%
4	Lebanon2 metros	2.64	9.9	Levantine Arabic 100%Standard Arabic 86%English 40%French 38%
5	Malta2 metros	2.57	8.8	Maltese 100%English 88%Italian 56%
6	Slovenia17 metros	2.49	10.4	Slovenian 87%Croatian Standard 61%English 59%German 42%
7	Denmark31 metros	2.39	64.8	Danish 93%English 86%German 47%
8	Hong Kong1 metro	2.36	68.6	Mandarin Chinese 95%Yue Chinese 90%English 51%
9	Mauritius2 metros	2.35	6.2	Morisyen 90%French 73%English 72%
10	Israel16 metros	2.33	59.0	Modern Hebrew 100%English 85%
11	Tunisia13 metros	2.33	15.9	Standard Arabic 90%Tunisian Arabic 90%French 53%
12	Finland26 metros	2.26	45.7	Finnish 94%English 70%Swedish 44%
13	Morocco17 metros	2.21	34.4	Moroccan Arabic 87%Standard Arabic 62%French 36%
14	Lithuania15 metros	2.18	12.2	Lithuanian 86%Russian 80%English 38%
15	Fiji3 metros	2.18	7.0	English 94%Hindi 44%Fiji Hindi 41%Fijian 39%
16	Jordan5 metros	2.11	14.2	Standard Arabic 100%Levantine Arabic 66%English 45%
17	Macau1 metro	2.07	25.6	Mandarin Chinese 98%Yue Chinese 86%
18	Algeria21 metros	2.01	15.6	Algerian Arabic 83%Standard Arabic 74%French 33%
19	Estonia10 metros	1.98	6.6	Estonian 71%Russian 56%English 50%
20	Slovakia23 metros	1.96	8.9	Slovak 90%Czech 47%English 26%
21	Egypt28 metros	1.93	78.5	Standard Arabic 94%Egyptian Arabic 64%English 35%
22	Jamaica4 metros	1.93	7.7	English 98%Jamaican Creole English 95%
23	Cyprus11 metros	1.91	13.5	Modern Greek 95%English 73%
24	Seychelles3 metros	1.89	4.3	Seselwa Creole French 98%French 53%English 38%
25	Germany73 metros	1.85	448	German 91%English 64%
26	Belgium31 metros	1.84	115	English 59%Dutch 55%French 38%
27	Austria27 metros	1.83	90.7	German 97%English 73%
28	Sudan16 metros	1.83	12.8	English 61%Standard Arabic 61%Sudanese Arabic 61%
29	Sweden53 metros	1.81	102	Swedish 95%English 86%
30	Philippines15 metros	1.79	67.8	English 64%Filipino 60%Spanish 31%
31	Switzerland32 metros	1.75	140	German 76%English 45%French 39%
32	Poland71 metros	1.66	122	Polish 96%English 33%
33	Bosnia-Herzegovina26 metros	1.66	8.8	Bosnian Standard 99%English 45%
34	Syria13 metros	1.65	8.3	Levantine Arabic 85%Standard Arabic 80%
35	Armenia8 metros	1.64	7.1	Eastern Armenian 99%Russian 65%
36	Vatican City1 metro	1.64	3.6	Italian 82%Latin 82%
37	Taiwan6 metros	1.63	88.1	Mandarin Chinese 95%Min Nan Chinese 57%
38	Singapore1 metro	1.61	64.6	English 80%Mandarin Chinese 62%
39	Tanzania16 metros	1.59	18.0	Swahili 90%English 69%
40	Bulgaria25 metros	1.59	12.5	Bulgarian 100%English 25%
41	Czech Republic36 metros	1.56	51.1	Czech 98%English 27%
42	Kazakhstan23 metros	1.51	32.2	Russian 72%Kazakh 64%
43	Greece49 metros	1.50	68.0	Modern Greek 99%English 51%