English most powerful language in the world: WEF

December 8, 2016

English has been ranked first in the top 10 most powerful languages in the world according to the 2016 World Power Language Index (PLI).
The index was published by World Economic Forum (WEF). Indian language Hindi was ranked 10th in the 2016 PLI.

Key Facts

According to the index there are over 6,000 languages spoken in the world. Of these 2,000 count fewer than 1,000 speakers.
Moreover, just 15 languages account for half of the languages spoken in the world. English is dominant language of 3 G7 nations (USA, UK and Canada).
Top 10 Languages in 2016 PLI: English (1st), Mandarin (2nd), French (3rd), Spanish (4th), Arabic (5th), Russian (6th), German (7th), Japanese (8th), Portuguese (9th) and Hindi (10th).
The top six languages are official languages of the United Nations. The remaining 4 in the top 10 include two other BRIC languages (Portuguese and Hindi) and 2 of the economic heavyweights (Germany and Japan).
Hindi is most primarily language spoken in India with a share of 41%. It is also the official language of Indian government.

About World Power Language Index (PLI)

The World Power Language Index (PLI) compares or ranks languages on their efficacy in the various domains.
It uses 20 indicators to measure the influence on language. It measures the usefulness of a language to a representative human being.
It is not meant to apply to any particular person with their own set of conditions, preferences and geography.
It does not measure of the beauty or merit of a language or its associated cultures.

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