What Language to Learn?
There’s often a debate on the internet floating around as to which language one should learn to “best prepare themselves” for the changing tide of the East, namely China, growing in economic relevance and commerce. The simple, copy-and-paste answer is that you should learn Mandarin Chinese, or perhaps even Arabic given the Dubai bubble. So called Passport Bros (men who deliberately seek out foreign women for their passport portfolios) are keen to advise that you should be learning Spanish (which similar to the two prior languages, plays to a massive population of native speakers). However, I believe this talk overlooks something that is rather politically incorrect, but important for you if you’re serious about your future wealth & opportunities.
Does the language you speak or use help influence how wealthy you are?
When trying to determine why some countries are wealthier than others, economists rarely, if at all, consider language
Regional Concentration: The United States is the largest market, holding about 68.7% of all registered private jets, even though it only accounts for 4% of the world population
How “valuable” is the language?
Of course this is not a literal question, if you live in Finland, whether you do any business at all, it’s very valuable to know Finnish. Head across the border to Sweden and it’s useless.
When I say valuable, I mean, how much wealth is actually associated with those who speak each language.
If you look at the list of wealthiest countries on a per capita income basis, you will notice almost all the top 20 are English-speaking, or use some other Germanic language, with the exception of France, Japan, and Finland (however, most Finns know German and English as well as Swedish, and many Frenchmen know German and/or English).
English is only the primary language for about 5 percent (340 million) of the world’s people. Another 200 million, or 3 percent, are reasonably fluent in English, and perhaps up to another 500 million (8 percent) know some English (as of 2019 data).
The number of French and German speakers are each probably less than 3 percent of the world’s population. Yet, those who speak English or other Germanic languages account for more than 40 percent of the world GDP, while comprising only about 8 percent of the world’s population.
The rankings of the other major languages are as follows (both primary and secondary speakers)
- Mandarin Chinese 1.1 billion;
- Hindi 490 million;
- Spanish 420 million;
- Arabic 255 million,
- and Russian also with 255 million.
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Rankings by GDP per Capita
🥇 1. English — Clear, runaway #1
English dominates the richest large economies on Earth and acts as the operating language of global capital markets.
High-income English-speaking countries:
- 🇺🇸 United States
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
If you randomly select an English speaker from a core English country, you are statistically selecting from the top global income tier. No other language has this many rich anchor states. Likewise, if you speak to someone who is knowledgeable in English, they too are in the global minority and perhaps a higher change of a higher net wealth per capita.
🥈 2. German — Quietly elite
German is concentrated almost entirely in industrial, export-driven, high-productivity economies with small-to-mid populations.
German-speaking countries:
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein
German likely has the highest median economic productivity per native speaker of any major language–in terms of income per capita or wealth per capita they take a backseat to English however.
🥉 3. Nordic languages (averaged)
Countries:
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
4. French — Affluent core, diluted edge
While French is spoken in poorer countries too, its economic center of gravity remains firmly in high-income Europe.
High-income French-speaking countries:
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇧🇪 Belgium
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland (French regions share Swiss GDP)
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇨🇦 Canada (Quebec)
- Monaco (every 3rd resident is a millionaire)
- But also, African francophone countries
French beats Japanese because it spans multiple rich sovereign balance sheets, not just one country–Francophone countries in Africa greatly reduce the average.
5. Dutch — Small language, big money
Dutch-speaking countries:
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇧🇪 Belgium (Dutch-speaking Flanders)
- 🇸🇷 Suriname (low-income, but economically marginal to the language’s core)
It’s an elite commercial language with disproportionate financial weight.
6. Japanese — Rich, but singular
Japanese-speaking country:
- 🇯🇵 Japan
Japan is a top-tier developed economy, but the language is essentially mononational, and Japan’s GDP per capita has been flat relative to Europe/Anglosphere. I cover some of Japan’s predicament below here.
7. Italian — Borderline top tier
Italian-speaking countries:
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland (Italian regions)
- 🇸🇲 San Marino
Still a wealthy-language context globally, but meaningfully below German/French/English
Big News for You
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The good news here is that these languages are far more simpler for Latin/Germanic languages to learn compared to many Eastern languages
Surprised Professionalism
Some jurisdictions where I have noted that they have been very professional despite not ranking very high in languages are the following:
1. Georgia
2. Mexico (ONLY in select areas)
3. Poland
4. Armenia
5. Hong Kong
Closing
Overwhelmingly, English, Germanic and French language(s) are the most dominant languages you should learn if you wish to be around highly productive, competitive and wealthy individuals. While it is certainly a useful skill to know, and evidence suggests learning more languages is fantastic for ones cognitive health, if your goal is strictly for fiscal purposes, I believe these three to be top choices.
Lucky for you, if you’re reading this (assuming without my translator), you already have one language down pat!
