Lingua franca reach

How far each lingua franca gets you by: the share who can hold a conversation in it.

Data as of 28 Oct 2026 · 228 countries with a reach figure, 10 languages · CLDR 49, Glottolog 5.3, States sheet

Language91 countries over 1 million with a figure

Where English gets you by

Share of each country's people who can hold a conversation in it.

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Small territories are not drawn at this scale.

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Ireland

Tier 3 country · 5.5M residents

98%

5.3M people

Jamaica

Tier 3 country · 2.8M residents

98%

2.7M people

New Zealand

Tier 3 country · 5.4M residents

98%

5.3M people

United Kingdom

Tier 3 country · 69.3M residents

98%

67.9M people

Australia

Tier 3 country · 27.8M residents

96%

26.7M people

United States

Tier 3 country · 341.8M residents

96%

328.1M people

Netherlands

Tier 3 country · 18.2M residents

90%

16.3M people

Trinidad & Tobago

Tier 3 country · 1.4M residents

88%

1.2M people

Canada

Tier 3 country · 41.4M residents

87%

36.0M people

Denmark

Tier 3 country · 6.0M residents

86%

5.2M people

Sweden

Tier 3 country · 10.6M residents

86%

9.1M people

Israel

Tier 3 country · 10.3M residents

85%

8.7M people

#					First / second
1	Ireland	98%	5.3M	5.5M	—	Tier 3 country
2	Jamaica	98%	2.7M	2.8M	—	Tier 3 country
3	New Zealand	98%	5.3M	5.4M	—	Tier 3 country
4	United Kingdom	98%	67.9M	69.3M	—	Tier 3 country
5	Australia	96%	26.7M	27.8M	—	Tier 3 country
6	United States	96%	328.1M	341.8M	—	Tier 3 country
7	Netherlands	90%	16.3M	18.2M	—	Tier 3 country
8	Trinidad & Tobago	88%	1.2M	1.4M	—	Tier 3 country
9	Canada	87%	36.0M	41.4M	—	Tier 3 country
10	Denmark	86%	5.2M	6.0M	—	Tier 3 country
11	Sweden	86%	9.1M	10.6M	—	Tier 3 country
12	Israel	85%	8.7M	10.3M	—	Tier 3 country
13	Liberia	83%	4.4M	5.2M	—	Tier 3 country
14	Botswana	81%	1.9M	2.4M	—	Tier 3 country
15	Eswatini	80%	988K	1.2M	—	Tier 3 country
16	Singapore	80%	4.9M	6.1M	—	Tier 3 country
17	Austria	73%	6.7M	9.2M	—	Tier 3 country
18	Mauritius	72%	894K	1.2M	—	Tier 3 country
19	Finland	70%	4.0M	5.7M	—	Tier 3 country
20	Tanzania	69%	48.3M	70.0M	—	Tier 3 country
21	Germany	64%	53.4M	83.5M	—	Tier 3 country
22	Philippines	64%	73.5M	114.8M	—	Tier 3 country
23	Malawi	63%	13.1M	20.7M	—	Tier 3 country
24	Sudan	61%	32.5M	53.3M	—	Tier 3 country
25	Belgium	59%	7.0M	11.9M	—	Tier 3 country
26	Eritrea	59%	2.1M	3.6M	—	Tier 3 country
27	Slovenia	59%	1.3M	2.1M	—	Tier 3 country
28	Nigeria	53%	118.6M	223.8M	—	Tier 3 country
29	Greece	51%	5.3M	10.4M	—	Tier 3 country
30	Hong Kong	51%	3.8M	7.5M	—	Tier 3 country
31	Estonia	50%	680K	1.4M	—	Tier 3 country
32	Pakistan	50%	120.7M	241.5M	—	Tier 3 country
33	Papua New Guinea	50%	5.1M	10.2M	—	Tier 3 country
34	United Arab Emirates	50%	5.6M	11.3M	—	Tier 3 country
35	Croatia	49%	1.9M	3.9M	—	Tier 3 country
36	Puerto Rico	49%	1.6M	3.2M	—	Tier 3 country
37	Latvia	46%	844K	1.8M	—	Tier 3 country
38	Bosnia-Herzegovina	45%	1.5M	3.4M	—	Tier 3 country
39	Jordan	45%	5.4M	11.9M	—	Tier 3 country
40	Switzerland	45%	4.1M	9.1M	—	Tier 3 country
41	Ethiopia	43%	48.0M	111.7M	—	Tier 3 country
42	Zimbabwe	42%	7.2M	17.1M	—	Tier 3 country
43	Gambia	40%	969K	2.4M	—	Tier 3 country
44	Lebanon	40%	2.4M	5.9M	—	Tier 3 country
45	France	39%	26.9M	69.1M	—	Tier 3 country
46	Cameroon	38%	11.2M	29.4M	—	Tier 3 country
47	Lithuania	38%	1.1M	2.9M	—	Tier 3 country
48	Egypt	35%	38.0M	108.6M	—	Tier 3 country
49	Iraq	35%	16.1M	46.1M	—	Tier 3 country
50	Sierra Leone	35%	3.2M	9.1M	—	Tier 3 country
51	Italy	34%	20.0M	58.9M	—	Tier 3 country
52	Poland	33%	12.3M	37.3M	—	Tier 3 country
53	Romania	31%	5.9M	19.0M	—	Tier 3 country
54	South Africa	31%	19.6M	63.1M	—	Tier 3 country
55	Czech Republic	27%	2.9M	10.9M	—	Tier 3 country
56	Lesotho	27%	571K	2.1M	—	Tier 3 country
57	Portugal	27%	3.1M	11.4M	—	Tier 3 country
58	South Sudan	27%	4.3M	15.8M	—	Tier 3 country
59	Thailand	27%	17.7M	65.7M	—	Tier 3 country
60	Slovakia	26%	1.4M	5.4M	—	Tier 3 country
61	Bulgaria	25%	1.6M	6.4M	—	Tier 3 country
62	Spain	24%	11.9M	49.7M	—	Tier 3 country
63	Ghana	21%	7.2M	34.4M	—	Tier 3 country
64	Malaysia	21%	7.2M	34.4M	—	Tier 3 country
65	Hungary	20%	1.9M	9.5M	—	Tier 3 country
66	India	19%	271.6M	1429.4M	—	Tier 3 country
67	Kenya	19%	10.1M	53.3M	—	Tier 3 country
68	Bangladesh	18%	30.6M	169.8M	—	Tier 3 country
69	Madagascar	18%	5.9M	32.7M	—	Tier 3 country
70	Turkey	17%	14.6M	86.1M	—	Tier 3 country
71	Zambia	16%	3.2M	19.7M	—	Tier 3 country
72	Kazakhstan	15%	3.1M	20.6M	—	Tier 3 country
73	Rwanda	15%	2.2M	14.4M	—	Tier 3 country
74	Morocco	14%	5.2M	36.8M	—	Tier 3 country
75	Panama	14%	569K	4.1M	—	Tier 3 country
76	Mexico	13%	17.0M	131.2M	—	Tier 3 country
77	Sri Lanka	10%	2.2M	21.8M	—	Tier 3 country
78	Chile	10%	1.9M	20.2M	—	Tier 3 country
79	Yemen	9%	2.9M	32.7M	—	Tier 3 country
80	Brazil	8%	17.1M	213.4M	—	Tier 3 country
81	Algeria	7%	3.3M	47.4M	—	Tier 3 country
82	Argentina	7%	3.3M	46.5M	—	Tier 3 country
83	Namibia	7%	212K	3.0M	—	Tier 3 country
84	Uganda	4%	1.8M	45.9M	—	Tier 3 country
85	Russia	4%	5.5M	146.0M	—	Tier 3 country
86	Guatemala	3%	568K	18.3M	—	Tier 3 country
87	Nepal	3%	901K	30.0M	—	Tier 3 country
88	Honduras	0%	45K	10.2M	—	Tier 3 country
89	Dominican Republic	0%	8K	10.8M	—	Tier 3 country
90	Burundi	0%	6K	12.3M	—	Tier 3 country
91	China	0%	0	1404.9M	—	Tier 3 country

Under 1 million residents or no population figure: 61 territories

Where these numbers come from

Every figure is the CLDR country total for first plus second language, Tier 3; a census or survey figure would outrank it. See Method.

Unicode CLDR territoryInfo (release 49) (Unicode License v3). Country-level language shares, official status and Tier 3 reach (populationPercent is total speakers, first plus second language).
Glottolog 5.3 (CC BY 4.0). Language names, ISO 639-3 codes, families.
Database of International and Intranational Linguistic distances (DICL v2), USITC (CC BY 4.0). Country-pair linguistic proximity (loaded, not yet shown in release one).
States (ISO 3166-2) sheet, MetroAreas workbook (Citizen of Nowhere, own compilation). States, populations and the four language labels per state.
Natural Earth 1:110m Admin 0 Countries (nvkelso/natural-earth-vector) (Public domain). World outline for the language maps (world-110m.geojson, properties reduced to iso3 and name).
Country layer of this site (countries.json workbook population, World Bank iso2 and iso3, OWID country-population) (Citizen of Nowhere, own compilation; World Bank CC BY 4.0; OWID CC BY). Country population, iso2 and /countries slug joined onto languages, countries and families (speakers = share x population).