60+ Facts About Language To Help Your Studies

Created: Feb 23, 2025
Last Updated: Feb 23, 2025

There’s no denying it: English is really hard to learn! There are so many rules to remember, far too many versions of there, too, and buy (to name a few), and many ways to get it wrong… Sure, learning English vocab with movies is a great help but sometimes it can be nice to know the why behind the word. That’s why we’ve found 60+ facts about language to help you with your studies.

Because we’re language swots, (there’s another British slang term for you!) our facts cover a range of languages - we just couldn’t help ourselves! So, get ready to learn over 60 language facts.

60+ Facts About Language

Of course, one of the easiest ways to learn a language (like English) is to interact with native speakers. However, sometimes it can be tricky to understand why they have phrased a sentence that way or used that specific word.

Languages, huh? No one said it was easy to become bilingual (or plurilingual) but it sure is rewarding. Speaking of people who speak more than one language, let’s dive into some fascinating language facts!

Language Learning Statistics

1. English is the most spoken language around the world, with almost 1.5 billion people speaking it natively or fluently. (Source: Statista)
2. English is the most studied language in the world. (Source: Eurotrad)
3. On the app Duolingo, English is the most common language - topping the ratings in 122 countries. (Source: Duolingo)
4. The UK English language training (ELT) sector generates around £1.4 billion in income for the UK each year. (Source: English UK)
5. 62% of UK adults think that English is the most important language for non-native children to learn at school around the world. (Source: EC English)
6. 96% of pupils in upper secondary general education in the EU were learning English as a foreign language. (Source: European Commission)
7. English as a second language accounts for roughly 375 million English language learners. (Source: Oxford University)
8. 49% of adults regret never learning a language other than English. (Source: National Consortium for Language Education)
9. 68% of parents in England believe learning a modern foreign language in secondary school should be compulsory. (Source: National Consortium for Language Education)
10. 68% of language learners struggle with grammar. (Source: International Journal of Science and Research)
11. While 53% face difficulties acquiring vocabulary. (Source: International Journal of Science and Research)
12. 42% of language learners consider pronunciation the most challenging aspect of language learning. (Source: Rosetta Stone)
13. 72% of language learners were motivated by the desire to improve their career opportunities. (Source: British Council)

Bilingual/ Plurilingual Facts

14. More than half of the world’s population speaks more than one language. (Source: North Anglia Education)
15. Children who are bilingual out-score monolingual peers in verbal and math sections of standardised tests, and do better in school. (Source: North Anglia Education)
16. Speaking two or more languages has been shown to delay the onset of Alzheimer's by 4.5 years. (Source: Alzheimer's Research UK)
17. Most Swiss residents speak at least two languages fluently, and one study has shown that their multilingualism accounts for 10% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (Source: Swiss Info)
18. Research by UCL states that the difficulties adults have in learning new languages are not biological, but instead perceptual. (Source: UCL)
19. Studies have shown that all foreign language learners develop on average better listening skills than monolingual peers. (Source: Colegio York)
20. 25% of the world’s population speaks at least some English. (Source: GMAT Club)
21. The word polyglot is used for a person who can speak or write in several languages. (Source: Centre of Excellence)
22. Europe has become largely multilingual as the number of migrants and refugees has increased. Around 300 languages are spoken in London alone! (Source: Ciklopea)

Facts About The English Language

23. The shortest grammatically correct sentence in English is “Go!”. (Source: Study)
24. The most common words in the English language are you and I. (Source: Go Natural English)
25. The most common adjective used in the English language is ‘good’. (Source: Grammar Monster)
26. Whereas the most commonly used noun is ‘time’. (Source: Cambridge University Press)
27. The word ‘set’ has the most definitions in the English language: 430. (Source: Morning Star)
28. In 1755, the first-ever English dictionary was written. (Source: University of Glasgow)
29. The oldest English word that is still in use is ‘town’. (Source: Kinney Brothers)
30. English is the language of the sky. By this, we mean all pilots use English when flying no matter their native tongue to prevent accidents. (Source: BAA Training)
31. William Shakespeare created over 1700 words that are still in use today. (Source: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)
32. There are around 160 different English dialects across the world. (Source: Speak)
33. Around 30% of the English language has either French or Latin origin. (Source: International Center for Language Studies)
34. There are currently 400 million people learning English in China - more than in any other country. (Source: British Council)

The Number of Global Languages Facts

35. There are over 7000 known languages around the world. (Source: Consumers International)
36. According to the UNESCO Languages Atlas, there are 2,473 languages that are in danger of becoming extinct. (Source: UNESCO)
37. As many as 90% of languages spoken today will become extinct within the next 100 years. (Source: UNESCO)
38. 96% of languages are spoken by 4% of the global population. (Source: European Day of Languages)
39. 90% of languages are spoken by fewer than 100,000 people. (Source: European Day of Languages)
40. Just 3% of the world’s languages are indigenous to Europe. (Source: European Day of Languages)
41. English is the official language of 67 countries. (Source: Clapingo)
42. There are over 500 languages that will never be heard again. (Source: Global Language Services)
43. One language dies every fortnight. (Source: Global Language Services)

Fun Facts About Languages That Are Fictional

44. The artificial language Esperanto is fully developed and has between half to two million speakers. (Source: Talkao)
45. The Star Trek language, Klingon (used in both the television series and movies) is a working language developed by a linguistics teacher from the University of California. (Source: Language Museum)
46. There were more than fifteen languages created for the novel ‘Lord of the Rings’ and its wider universe. (Source: Kwintessential)
47. It is thought that nearly 200 artificial languages have been created since the 17th century. (Source: Day Translations)

Translated Language Statistics

48. According to The Guinness Book of World Records, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights is the most translated document. It has been translated into around 300 languages. (Source: Metaphrasis)
49. The United Nations has six official languages - Chinese, Arabic, French, Russian, Spanish, and English. (Source: The United Nations)
50. The Bible is the most translated book in the world. (Source: Tomedes)
51. The author translated most across the world is Agatha Christie, with over 7200 combinations of languages and books. (Source: The Word Point)
52. The first language to ever be written was Sumerian - almost 5500 years ago in Mesopotamia. (Source: Dig Ventures)

Facts About Spoken Languages

53. The US has the second largest community of Spanish speakers after Mexico. (Source: The Week)
54. Russian and English are the languages of space. This is because astronauts have to learn Russian to operate the controls on the International Space Station. (Source: Babbel)
55. Busuu is spoken in the Southern Bantoid of Cameroon but only by eight people! (Source: She Codes)
56. There isn’t an official language of the US - over 350 languages are spoken in the country. (Source: USA Gov)
57. There are 24 different English dialects in the US. (Source: Business Insider)
58. Russian is the most common language in Europe, with 120 million native speakers. (Source: Tandem)
59. German comes in second place with 95 million speakers. (Source: Tandem)
60. The South Africans have 11 official languages to choose from. (Source: AfroLingo)
61. Basque is the one mystery language in the world, as it has not been influenced by any other language in existence. (Source: Babbel)
62. Argentina has a surprisingly high number of Welsh speakers within its population due to settlers inhabiting the scenic Patagonia area. (Source: British Council)
63. There are around 70 whistle languages worldwide. In many mountainous regions, whistling is the only way for people to communicate across large distances. (Source: Smithsonian Magazine)
64. The first language spoken in outer space was Russian. (Source: Babbel)
65. Zimbabwe has the most official languages - sixteen in total! (Source: Tomedes)

Language Facts to Help Your English Language Learning

Those are just a few of the language facts - who knew there were so many fictional languages in the world?

No matter where you’re native to, learning a second (or even third) language can have multiple benefits in all aspects of life. This can include your job, your social circle, and your health!

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