World Business Languages
The Top 15 Business Languages of the World
Into which languages should a company translate first? Clearly it depends first and foremost upon the markets for the particular product or service, and accessibility of those markets. But it is interesting to look more broadly at how much business is done in each language across the world.
This can be done roughly by working with the concept of Gross World Product (i.e. GDP – Gross Domestic Product – but for the whole world.) According to an IMF study, the top 15 languages can grant access to countries that make up more than 90% of GWP.
Table: Top Languages by Percentage of GWP – Source IMF 2008
| Rank | Language | GDP
(in $US Billions) |
% of GWP | Cumulative
% of GWP |
| 1 | English | $ 21,276 | 34.9% | 34.9% |
| 2 | Japanese | $ 4,911 | 8.1% | 43.0% |
| 3 | Simplified Chinese | $ 4,509 | 7.4% | 50.4% |
| 4 | German | $ 4,393 | 7.2% | 57.6% |
| 5 | Spanish | $ 4,170 | 6.8% | 64.5% |
| 6 | French | $ 3,951 | 6.5% | 71.0% |
| 7 | Italian | $ 2,481 | 4.1% | 75.0% |
| 8 | Russian | $ 2,245 | 3.7% | 78.7% |
| 9 | Portuguese | $ 1,915 | 3.1% | 81.9% |
| 10 | Arabic | $ 1,903 | 3.1% | 85.0% |
| 11 | Dutch | $ 1,386 | 2.3% | 87.3% |
| 12 | Korean | $ 929 | 1.5% | 88.8% |
| 13 | Turkish | $ 730 | 1.2% | 90.0% |
| 14 | Traditional Chinese | $ 607 | 1.0% | 91.0% |
| 15 | Polish | $ 528 | 0.9% | 91.8% |