This situation is mainly thanks to the inheritance received from the British Empire and the prevailing position of the United States as a global superpower. In fact, English is usually used as a vehicle of communication between people that speak different languages (between a Spaniard and a Swede, for instance). Not for nothing, it's the second language in dozens of countries and the most taught language at schools only behind the official one. The always reliable Wikipedia, quoting studies by Ethnologue, says that the latter has 372 million speakers around the world.īut despite not being the most spoken language in the world, it's definitely the one that connects the most people. But it's never considered the most important Spanish is in second place, and English in third. The answer to the question about which is the most spoken language in the world is Chinese.