LANGUAGES 101
There are more than 6,000 languages in use today, but I’m going to focus on only the most popular, shown in Table 2.1. If you were to localize your web site to include these languages, your site would be able to communicate with well over half of the world’s population—and more than 90% of all web users.
| Language | Primary Regions Spoken Estimated Number of | Native Speakers (in Millions) |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese (Mandarin) | China | 874 |
| Hindi-Urdu | India, Pakistan | 366 |
| English | North America, Great Britain, Australia, South Africa | 341 |
| Spanish | Latin America, Spain | 341 |
| Arabic | North Africa, Middle East | 183 |
| Portuguese | Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique | 176 |
| Russian | Former Soviet Union | 167 |
| Bengali | Bangladesh, India | 162 ... |
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