The Second Most Spoken Language in Every Country in the World

The fact that many countries have an official language that coexists with other languages, such as a widely spoken second native language, often stems from historical events. This could be tied to contemporary migration trends as well as historical immigration or colonization. Regardless of the reason, we see a lot of linguistic diversity today! And while it’s easy to calculate the most common language in every country, what about the second most spoken language?

The CIA’s annual publication, The World Factbook, has given us the data we’re looking for on the second most spoken language in nearly every country in the world. The analysis considers native languages, not learned second languages.

So, let’s take a look at the most interesting and surprising findings from this study. Ready to begin?

The Second Most Spoken Language by Continent

Let’s explore some striking aspects of each continent before taking a closer look at areas like Europe and the Iberian Peninsula.

The data compiled by the CIA’s The World Factbook has been visualized in a map by MoveHub (see below), making it easy to identify the second most spoken language in every country worldwide.

The colors on the map represent the ethnic origins of the second most spoken languages in each country. For example, blue indicates Indo-European languages. Now, let’s break it down:

North America

• In the United States (including Alaska), Spanish is the second most spoken language, as the Hispanic population is the largest minority group in both regions.
• In Canada, French is the native language of a significant portion of the population; a legacy of French colonization.
• In Mexico, the second most spoken language is Nahuatl, which was dominant before Spanish colonization and is still spoken in some regions today.

South America

• In Brazil, surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries, Spanish is the second most spoken language.
• In Argentina, it’s Italian, reflecting the massive wave of Italian immigrants in the late 19th century.
• Chile is the exception, where English is the second most common language. In other South American countries, indigenous languages that survived colonialism hold second place.

Europe

• While we’ll explore Europe in more detail later, broadly speaking, the second languages, which vary by country, are mostly Indo-European in origin. Some curiosities are tied to historical empires or political regimes.

Africa

• In much of North Africa and some other regions, the second most spoken languages are Indo-European (French, English, Italian, or Portuguese) which is a clear remnant of colonialism.
• However, in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, especially the south, the second languages belong to the Niger-Congo family.

Asia and the Middle East

• In Saudi Arabia, the second most spoken language is Tagalog (from the Philippines), due to the large Filipino expatriate community.
• English is prominent across Southeast Asia and South Korea.
• In China, the second most common language is Cantonese, a widely spoken Chinese dialect.
• In Japan, we see Korean as the second most common language.
• Bengali is India’s second most spoken language.
• In former USSR countries like Kazakhstan, Russian remains dominant as the second language.

Oceania

• In Australia, Mandarin Chinese is the second most spoken language, driven by waves of Chinese immigration since the mid-19th century gold rush.
• In New Zealand, the second language is Māori, the indigenous Polynesian language, which holds official status in the country alongside English.

The Second Most Spoken Languages in European Countries

As mentioned earlier, both the first and second most spoken languages in virtually every European country belong to the Indo-European family. The main language subgroups include: Germanic, Gaelic, Romance, Slavic, Baltic, Armenian, Albanian, Greek, and Indo-Iranian.

The following map provides a general layout of these languages across the continent.

Now, let’s highlight some key findings about the second most spoken language in each European country, based on The World Factbook study.

In the cases of Germany and Austria, we see that these two countries are the exception to the European rule since Turkish is the second most spoken language (not an Indo-European language). Have such a large Turkish-speaking population came from the large Turkish migration for the economic boom following the fall of the Nazi regime.

Another European exception is Slovakia and Romania, where Hungarian is the second most spoken language. Both of these countries previously belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which resulted in this language still being prominent today.

In a similar way, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania all have Russian as their second most common language, which isn’t surprising given that these countries were once part of the Soviet Union.

In France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden, English dominates as the second language. And in certain countries such as Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, the second most spoken languages are native: Gaelic, Catalan, and Mirandese, respectively. (We’ll look more into the Iberian Peninsula below).

Finally, although it is no longer part of the European Union, it is interesting to note that Polish is the secondary language in the United Kingdom, as it is the largest minority community in the country.

The Second Most Spoken Language in Iberian Peninsula Countries

Focusing specifically on the Iberian Peninsula and its unique linguistic landscape, we see that the second most spoken languages reflect indigenous minority communities.

In Spain, 14% of the population uses Catalan in their daily life. This includes Catalan variants such as Majorcan, Minorcan, Ibizan, and Formenteran, thus making it the second most spoken language in the country. Catalan is the native language of Catalonia, where it is co-official alongside Spanish. This Romance language originated between the 8th and 10th centuries in the northern Catalonia and Andorra.

This article focuses on native languages, not learned second languages. However, when considering acquired second languages, Spain’s linguistic profile changes (which you can explore further here).

In Portugal, to the surprise of many, the second most spoken language is Mirandese, which has been a co-official language with Portuguese since 1999. Between 10,000 and 15,000 people speak the language in the region called “Tierra de Miranda,” in the northeast of Portugal. This historical language appears to have originated from Asturleonese, as towns where it’s still spoken once belonged to the Kingdom of León, but it is still alive and well today.

The Most Common Second Languages Worldwide

To conclude the study published in The World Factbook, English emerged as the leading second language globally, serving as the secondary language in 55 countries.

French and Russian followed in second and third place respectively, though with a much smaller reach in 14 countries and 13 countries respectively.

Following closely behind are Spanish and Creole languages, both of which are spoken as a second native language in 8 countries.

If you’re wondering what a Creole language is, it refers to languages that emerge due to contact between people who do not share the same language and need to communicate. A clear example of this would be the blending of indigenous and colonial languages. Creole can be found in many parts of the world, including some countries in South America, Haiti, and even in the southern United States.

As for Spanish, nearly all the countries where this is their second language are located in South America.

In sixth place, we have Arabic as the most spoken second language in 6 different countries.

Arabic is followed by another tie between Portuguese and Kurdish in 4 different countries. Kurdish is an Indo-Iranian language spoken primarily in what’s called the Kurdistan region.

And last but not least, we end with one final tie for 3 countries with Italian and Quechua (aka the “Inca language”). Quechua is the most widely spoken indigenous language in South America.

As we finish out our list of the second most spoken language in every country, did you happen to see a language that you’d like to learn? MosaLingua now offers language learning courses in 11 different languages, including some that were in this article and some that were not. Try out some of our content and we’ll guild you every step of the way!

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