The latest projection is that French will be spoken by 750 million people by the time the year 2050 rolls around. A study by investment bank Natixis, reported by Forbes.com, suggests that by that time, French could be the most-spoken language in the world.
As China's global influence expands, Mandarin Chinese is expected to become even more widely spoken, potentially making it the most spoken language in the world by 2050. Mandarin Chinese is made up of a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects.
Why are more people speaking French? French is spoken in many countries in Africa, which currently have some of the largest rates of population growth, and it's this that makes French one of the fastest-growing languages in the world.
Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).
French is the language of the future. French is the second most useful language in the world for business. Studying French makes you smarter. French is one of the top ten majors most likely to lead to less unemployment and higher earnings.
It is true that it is not because many people speak this language that it will not die, but in any case the French language today remains a powerful language that is spoken throughout the world, so it is not a language that will die.
French or Japanese: Most useful Language
Learning French can open up opportunities for international travel, work abroad, and communication with native French speakers. Japanese, on the other hand, is a unique language known for its complex writing system and strict grammar rules.
But by 2050 the French landscape as far north as Auxerre in northern Burgundy will look like the south of France. There will also be a change to the coastline with sea levels continuing to rise, meaning more coastal flooding and coastal erosion, especially on the west where it's already taking place at a speedy rate.
While the number of people in Quebec with French as their mother tongue rose between 2016 and 2021, their proportion in Quebec's population decreased from 77.1 per cent to 74.8 per cent. The number of Quebecers whose first official language spoken is English is now 1,088,820.
The relative decline of French in Quebec can be explained partly by a younger anglophone population, immigration from non-Francophone countries, and Quebec losing fewer English speakers to other parts of the country, according to a Statistics Canada analysis of Wednesday's data.
Because of the massive growth of the Chinese economy, its language is thought to be the language of the future. With the current progress rate by 2050 China is thought to become one of the leading economies. It is already considered to be the second leading economy.
The 28 countries are, in alphabetical order: Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, Haiti, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Monaco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo and Vanuatu.
According to estimates by UNESCO, Portuguese is the fastest-growing European language after English. It is also the language that has, according to UNESCO, the highest potential for growth as an international language in southern Africa and South America.
The number of Francophones is expected to triple in the next thirty years, and French will become the second or third international language! According to OIF estimates, there will be some 715 million speakers in 2050, or 8% of the world's population (compared to 3% at present).
Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and Indonesian will dominate much of the business world by 2050, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Russian. If you want to get more out of your language course, study one of our language programs, probably a safe bet for your future.
Across Europe, French has gradually declined from being the lingua franca to falling behind German and English.
Once the international language of royal courts and diplomacy, French has lost ground to English in recent decades, but the report said the right policies - in education and industry - could increase the number of French speakers from an estimated 230 million today to as many as 770 million by 2050.
The reasons for the decline of French are many, including geography. Francophone regions are spread out: think of France, Vietnam, Quebec, and Guadeloupe, to start. Many of these regions are without direct connections to other French-speaking countries.
Future Hot Spots
But climate models tell us certain regions are likely to exceed those temperatures in the next 30-to-50 years. The most vulnerable areas include South Asia, the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea by around 2050; and Eastern China, parts of Southeast Asia, and Brazil by 2070.
Thank you. Several countries, and more specifically, cities are in danger from rising sea levels due to climate change. Countries like the Maldives, Vanuatu, The Solomon Islands and Kiribati and cities like Miami, NYC, Tokyo, Shanghai, Venice, Bangkok, and Lagos are at risk of going underwater.
Currently, the population of Paris has fallen below its 2000 level. The series noted that while Covid accelerated the departures, it has been happening for almost a decade.
French is probably infinitely easier for you if you speak English, but Chinese is most likely the more useful of the two. But what they're saying about your desire to learn the language is true: learning Chinese won't be easy so you might not get very far if you don't enjoy it.
You're wondering if it's worth it to continue your studies of French? The answer is "oui"! French is not only a beautiful language that allows you access to a rich heritage of culture, Literatures, and philosophy, it is also a valuable asset in todays global marketplace.
German beats out French for those English cognates we talked about earlier, though—it shares about 40% of its vocabulary with English! Many language learners feel that French is easier to pick up in the beginning but gets harder as you master fluency, while German is an uphill battle at first but smooths out quickly.