New research from the language website Wordtips has revealed the top language choice of learners in nearly every capital city in the world.

By analyzing data from over 280,000 profiles on the popular language-learning platform Conversation Exchange, Wordtips found the language currently being learned by the highest proportion of learners in every available national capital.

The results showed that English is the most popular language globally, coming out on top in 52 of the world’s capital cities, including Lima, Hanoi, Bogota, Ankara, and Cairo. Spanish ranked second, proving to be the most popular language in 10 cities worldwide, followed by French in third place and Japanese in fourth.

The data threw up some intriguing trends, too. Of those 10 Spanish-learning cities, six—including Washington, D.C., London, and Dublin—were the capitals of nations where English is an official or primary language, while the remaining four (Amsterdam, Oslo, Stockholm, and Copenhagen) lie clustered together in northern Europe. Cultural and historical ties may have made French the most popular choice in Toronto, Canada, while Japanese came out on top in Canberra, Australia, where it’s currently being learned by roughly one in every 10 school students.

There’s an intriguing generational divide as well: The analysis revealed that Spanish and French are the most popular languages being learned by all generations in the U.S., but after that, Boomers and Gen Xers were found to be keenest to learn Italian, while the popularity of K-Pop and anime among Gen Zs and Millennials saw them more likely to opt for Korean and Japanese.

Sources:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/language-that-each-city-wants-to-learn-most
https://word.tips/multilingual-cities-map/