What language does the world write in?
Updated 30 August 2026
We know how many people speak English. We know far less about the language they actually type their messages in — and that is not the same map. This one is coloured on everyday writing: texts, emails, notes. It is the only one that matters when you build a keyboard.
18.1% 1.46 billion people write in English every day, out of the 8.05 billion on the map.
Choose the languages1
They write in the ticked languages
≥ 80%
40–79%
15–39%
< 15%
Drag the map to move it
Touch a country to see its detail.
A few interesting facts
They speak English or French, but write in their own language
Germany58% speak English. They write in German.
NetherlandsThe most English-speaking country in continental Europe, and almost nobody types in English.
Sweden, Denmark, Norway, IcelandThe same story, four times. They read English with ease; they do not write it.
Israel, Greece, Malaysia, Hong KongA strong written language, a dedicated keyboard, settled habits.
They write in English or French more than they speak them
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, BotswanaEnglish is the only language written there. Nearly everyone who is literate types in English.
Uganda, Malawi, DR Congo, SenegalDR Congo alone: 105 million people, with French as the single written language.
IndiaOnly 11% really speak English, but urban writing runs massively through the Latin alphabet. 288 million people — more than the whole of Europe.
HaitiCreole is barely written; French is.
Where these figures come from
- The dictionaries, measured on iOS 26.5.
UITextChecker.availableLanguagesreturns 42 spelling dictionaries, out of 98 input languages installed. That list is what decides the last group: with no dictionary shipped, everything would have to be built. - The country outlines. Natural Earth (public domain), in the Equal Earth projection, which preserves areas: no country is enlarged. Antarctica is removed. 176 territories.
- Nobody is counted twice. A Mexican who already writes in English is not counted again when you tick Spanish: a country's covered share is capped at 100%. That is why two languages bring in less than the sum of their two chips.
- The percentages are estimates, and you should know it: nobody measures this. No institute publishes “which language do people text in”. Every percentage is a judgement, built on three verifiable things: the literacy rate, whether the mother tongue has a common written standard, and the language of school and work.
- The list of languages is not the world's. A language missing from the four groups — Malay, Urdu, Swahili, Amharic — is never counted. Malaysia and Tanzania therefore stay pale whatever you tick: that is not a measurement, it is an absence.
- The map counts people, not markets. It says how many people could use a keyboard in the language they write in, and nothing else.
- Read this as an order of magnitude, not as a source. These figures are there to show a trend, not to base a decision on. They come with no warranty: we are not answerable for what anyone does with them.