If you’ve yet to choose a new language to learn, you might be interested in which ones are popular at the moment. Whether you want to use it for your professional development or to unlock new countries to explore, it can be useful to know some of the in-demand languages around the world. 

As you might expect, Arabic is one of the most widely spoken ones out there. With around 339 million native speakers and 1.5 billion language learners, it’s useful for travel, work, and qualification , taken by around 5 million people each year. 

• Chinese. There are around 1.3 billion native Chinese speakers, with roughly 917 million of these people speaking Mandarin. Becoming fluent in Chinese could create a variety of opportunities for you, both personally and professionally. 
• Spanish. Roughly 20 countries around the world use Spanish as an official language.  With over 450 million native speakers, it’s the second-most spoken native language in the world behind Chinese. 
• Arabic. Arabic is a language that’s rapidly growing in terms of speakers, especially on the internet. It’s also the official language in around 25 countries worldwide and spoken in roughly 60, meaning there are so many ways and places you can use it. 
• French. About 51 countries around the world speak French, placing it behind only English and Arabic in prevalence. What’s more, it’s a language that’s being spoken in many of the fastest-growing areas of the world. 
• Russian. There are nearly 150 million native Russian speakers, as well over 120 million people who speak it as a second language. It’s the eighth most commonly used language globally.