Which Countries and Languages Matter Most?

By Donald A. DePalma

Topic

These charts originally appeared in the Common Sense Advisory report, “On the Web, Some Countries Matter More than Others” (Sep07).

2007 Rank	Country	GDP in USD (billions)	% of 2007 GWP	% of GWP Cumulative	Internet Users (millions)	Dominant Language > 60%
1	United States	13,244.5	27.0%	27.0%	205.3	English
2	Japan	4,367.4	8.9%	35.9%	86.3	Japanese
3	Germany	2,897.0	5.9%	41.8%	50.6	German
4	China	2,630.1	5.4%	47.1%	123.0	Chinese¹
5	United Kingdom	2,373.6	4.8%	52.0%	37.6	English
6	France	2,231.6	4.5%	56.5%	29.9	French
7	Italy	1,852.5	3.8%	60.3%	28.8	Italian
8	Canada	1,269.0	2.6%	62.9%	21.9	English/ French²
9	Spain	1,225.7	2.5%	65.3%	19.2	Spanish
10	Brazil	1,067.7	2.2%	67.5%	25.9	Portuguese
11	Russia	979.0	2.0%	69.5%	23.7	Russian
12	South Korea	888.2	1.8%	71.3%	33.9	Korean
13	India	886.8	1.8%	73.1%	60.0	English/ Hindi³
14	Mexico	840.0	1.7%	74.8%	18.6	Spanish
15	Australia	754.8	1.5%	76.4%	14.6	English
16	Netherlands	663.1	1.4%	77.7%	10.8	Dutch
17	Belgium	393.5	0.8%	78.5%	5.1	Dutch/ French⁴
18	Turkey	392.4	0.8%	79.3%	16.0	Turkish
19	Sweden	385.2	0.8%	80.1%	6.8	Swedish
20	Switzerland	377.2	0.8%	80.9%	5.0	German
21	Indonesia	364.2	0.7%	81.6%	16.0	Indonesian⁵
22	Taiwan	355.7	0.7%	82.3%	13.2	Chinese
23	Saudi Arabia	348.6	0.7%	83.1%	3.2	Arabic
24	Poland	338.6	0.7%	83.7%	10.6	Polish
25	Norway	335.2	0.7%	84.4%	3.1	Norwegian

Figure 1: Top 25 Countries by Gross Domestic Product in 2007
Source: CIA World Factbook and Common Sense Advisory, Inc.

Figure 2: Ten Mega-Languages Account for 76 Percent of Online Access
Source: Ethnologue, CIA World Factbook, and Common Sense Advisory, Inc..

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¹ Major dialects include Standard Chinese or Mandarin, Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, and Hakka dialects.

² English accounts for 59.3 percent of residents, French for 23.2 percent.

³ English is used for national, political, and commercial communication. Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the population; plus 14 other official languages.

⁴ Dutch accounts for 60%, French for the other 40%.

⁵ Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay), English, Dutch, and local dialects (the most widely spoken is Javanese).

	Report title
	By Donald A. DePalma Nov 2007 ISBN: pending Copyright © 2007 by Common Sense Advisory, Inc. Lowell, Massachusetts, United States of America. Published by: Common Sense Advisory, Inc. 100 Merrimack Street Suite 301 Lowell, MA 01852-1708 USA +1.978.275.0500 info@commonsenseadvisory.com www.commonsenseadvisory.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Permission requests should be addressed to the Permissions Department, Common Sense Advisory, Inc., 100 Merrimack Street, Suite 301, Lowell, MA 01852-1708, +1.978.275.0500, E-Mail: info@commonsenseadvisory.com. See www.commonsenseadvisory.com/others/citation_policy.php for usage guidelines. Trademarks: Common Sense Advisory, Global DataSet, DataPoint, Globa Vista, Quick Take, and Technical Take are trademarks of Common Sense Advisory, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Information is based on the best available resources at the time of analysis. Opinions reflect the best judgment of Common Sense Advisory’s analysts at the time, and are subject to change.