The speakers were mostly subjects of the Russian Empire. In total, there are about 150 million Russian-speaking people in the world. During the Soviet era, Russian was compulsory in schools and had the status of a state language, and therefore the number of people speaking it increased. By the beginning of perestroika, about 350 million people spoke Russian, most of whom lived on the territory of the Soviet Union.
After the collapse of the USSR, the number of people whose main language of communication was Russian decreased. By 2005, 140 million people spoke it in Russia, and about 278 million in the world. This language is the native language of 130 million people living in the Russian Federation, and for 26.4 million of those who permanently reside in the Baltic countries and the CIS republics. Just over 114 million people on the planet speak Russian as a second language or have learned it as a foreign language. The W3Techs company conducted a study in March 2013, during which it turned out that Russian is the second most common language on the Internet. Only English surpassed it.
In 2006, the journal “Demoscope” published the research of the director for scientific work of the Center for Sociological Research of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia A.L. Arefieva. He claims that the Russian language is losing its position in the world. In a new study, “The Russian language at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries,” which was published in 2012, the scientist predicts a weakening of positions. He believes that by 2020-2025 it will be spoken by about 215 million people, and by 2050 - about 130 million. In the countries of the former Soviet Union, local languages are elevated to the status of state languages; in the world, the decrease in the number of Russian-speaking people is associated with the demographic crisis.
Russian is considered one of the most translated languages in the world. According to the electronic translation register database Index Translationum, it is currently in 7th place.
Official status of the Russian language
In Russia, Russian is the official state language. In Belarus it also has state status, but shares position with the Belarusian language, in South Ossetia - with Ossetian, in Transnistria - with Ukrainian and Moldavian.
In Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Abkhazia, as well as a number of administrative-territorial units of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania, office work is carried out on. In Tajikistan it is used in lawmaking and is recognized as a language of interethnic communication. According to the laws of the American state of New York, some documents related to elections must be translated into Russian without fail. Russian is the working or official language of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation of Europe, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Society, the International Organization for Standardization and others.
The Russian language is the language of science, progress and culture. Silicon Valley and CERN speak Russian. Knowledge of spoken Russian is mandatory for all astronauts working on the International Space Station. The Russian language is the only state language of Russia and has the status of one of the state languages in Belarus and Transnistria, and in some CIS countries its status is called official. The global status of the Russian language is enshrined in the UN, where Russian is one of the six working languages.
In terms of prevalence, the Russian language ranks 4th in the world, second only to English, Chinese and Spanish.
A surge of interest in the Russian language has arisen since 2000. This is largely due to the fact that anti-Russian reactions and prejudices have become a thing of the past, giving way to cooperation and mutual economic interest between countries. With the active development of business, the creation of international corporations and companies, the increase in the number of tourists, both leaving Russia and those coming to our country, the number of people using the Russian language in communication is increasing every year.
Today, the prevalence of the Russian language on the planet can be assessed as follows: about 170 million people speak Russian. About 350 million people understand it perfectly. More than 30 million people live outside their historical homeland (Russia) for whom Russian is their native language. 180 million people living in countries near and far abroad are learning Russian. The Russian language, one way or another, is taught in about 100 countries. 79 have academic university programs. In 54 it was included in the school education system.
There are countries with a high level of Russian language proficiency - Belarus (77%), Ukraine (65%) and Kazakhstan, where approximately two-thirds of the population speaks Russian fluently. In countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, and Estonia, about a quarter of residents use Russian as a means of communication. In Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and Lithuania, about 30% of the population speaks Russian.
In the former socialist countries of Europe, our closest neighbors - Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic - in the same 90s there was a certain decline in interest in the Russian language. However, today in Poland and Bulgaria the Russian language ranks second in the popularity ranking.
According to statistics, today the Russian language shares with Spanish the fourth place in the number of people who want to study it as a foreign language. At the moment, the number of such applicants is 6% of the total population of the European Union. Interest in the Russian language abroad is also shown by those who do not know the language, but want to know more about the events taking place in Russia.
There are about 300 radio stations broadcasting in Russian in the world; there are also Russian publications that print news not only in Russian, but also in the language of partner countries, collaborating with the most famous foreign media.
Thus, the Russian language is gradually becoming a means of global communication, strengthening Russia’s position in the world.
Russian has earned the status of one of the world (global) languages a long time ago. Now about 300 million people on the planet speak it, which automatically puts the Russian language in honorable fifth place in terms of prevalence. More than half (160 million) of respondents consider this language their native language. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian was the official language of communication of all nationalities that then inhabited the huge country. Now he is a worker in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and one of the six official ones in the UN (United Nations).
The number and territorial distribution of Russian speakers are as follows. Before the revolution in the Russian Empire, 150 million citizens spoke Russian. By 2000, their numbers had grown to 350 million. The number of Russian speakers who consider this language their native language is approximately 280 million. A little bit more 70 million people owned it well and used it in everyday life. For 114 million, Russian was a second language. Basically, these were residents of the union republics of the former USSR. Now there are many Russian speakers in Ukraine, Georgia and other countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. Native speakers live in Germany, the Balkans, Asia, and Israel. A huge Russian diaspora exists in the USA and Canada. Now the Russian language is in second place after English in terms of prevalence on the global Internet. Unfortunately, the growth trends in the number of Russian-speaking users do not inspire much hope. The states that separated from the USSR are trying with all their might to revive their national cultures, rejecting or even banning the Russian language along with this. By 2005, the number of Russian-speaking citizens living in the former Soviet Union had dropped from 350 million to 278 million. In 2006, only 140 million people recognized him as family. Basically, these are citizens of the Russian Federation.
Did you know that the world's most popular language is spoken by 1/7 of the world's population? And this is not English at all! There are more than 7,000 languages in the world, but 10 of them are the most popular. Is there Russian in this top ten? The answer is under the cut...
No. 10 French - 150 million speakers
French is spoken in 53 countries around the world, the main one being France. About 150 million speakers in the world. French is the official language of many international organizations: the European Union, the International Olympic Committee, the UN, etc.
No. 9. Indonesian language - 200 million speakers
Indonesian is spoken in 16 countries, including Indonesia, and has working language status in East Timor. Indonesia is an island state with more than 13 thousand islands.
The Indonesian language evolved from Malay in the 20th century and is the most widely spoken dialect of the Malay language.
No. 8. Portuguese language - 240 million speakers
Portuguese is spoken in 12 countries around the world. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil.
In the 12th century, Portugal became independent from Spain and expanded its possessions around the world thanks to seafarers. Having founded colonies in Brazil, Angola, Macau, Mozambique, Venezuela and other countries, the Portuguese made their language one of the most common languages in the world. Portuguese is one of the official languages of the European Union and other international organizations.
No. 7. Bengali language - 250 million speakers
Bengali is spoken in Bangladesh and some states in India. For Bangladesh, Bengali is the official language, and for India it is the second most popular language.
No. 6. Russian - 260 million speakers
Russian is spoken in 17 countries around the world. Russian is the official language of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Widely distributed in Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. To a lesser extent in countries that were part of the Soviet Union.
Russian is one of the six official languages of the UN, the most widely spoken language in Europe and the most widely spoken Slavic language in the world.
No. 5. Arabic - 267 million speakers
Arabic is spoken in 58 countries around the world. The largest number of Arabic speakers is concentrated in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
The Arabic language is also spreading around the world thanks to the main book of Muslims - the Koran. Arabic became the sixth official language of the UN in 1974.
No. 4. Spanish - 427 million native speakers
Spanish is spoken in 31 countries around the world. The Spanish language originated in Spain in the Middle Ages and spread throughout the world during the Great Geographical Discoveries. Spanish is the official language of international organizations: the UN, the European Union, the Union of South American Nations, etc.
No. 3. Hindi - 490 million speakers
Hindi is spoken in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Many predict that Hindi will soon become the most spoken language in the world, overtaking China, but when or if this will happen remains unknown.
No. 2. English language - 600 million native speakers
English is the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of countries it covers - 106 countries. English is the official and main language in Great Britain. Countries such as India, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and the Philippines use English as their official language, but in addition to it they also have their own official languages.
No. 1. Chinese language - 1.3 billion speakers
Chinese is the official language of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore. It is spoken by over 1.3 billion people around the world and therefore ranks first in the list of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
Chinese is considered the most difficult language in the world. Chinese is one of the six official languages of the UN.
Will Russian be one of the world languages in the future?
At the beginning of the 20th century, approximately 150 million people spoke Russian - mostly subjects of the Russian Empire. Over the next 90 years, the number of people who know Russian (actively or passively speaking it) more than doubled - to approximately 350 million people, and 286 million of them lived in a country where Russian was the state language and for the majority of its inhabitants relatives. Another over 70 million people (mainly in the Union republics of the USSR, Eastern European, Balkan and a number of Asian countries) knew Russian to one degree or another. 14 years after the collapse of the USSR, by 2005, the number of people who speak Russian to varying degrees had decreased to 278 million people, including 140 million people in the Russian Federation itself.
Currently, Russian is the native language for 130 million citizens of the Russian Federation, for 26.4 million residents of the CIS and Baltic republics and for almost 7.4 million residents of non-CIS countries (primarily Germany and other European countries, the USA and Israel), then there is a total of 163.8 million people. Over 114 million more people speak Russian as a second language (mainly in the CIS and Baltic countries) or know it as a foreign language (in non-CIS countries). In 10 years, by 2015, the number of those for whom Russian is their native language will decrease, according to our estimates, to 144 million (including in Russia itself - to 120 million). In addition, another 68 million people will speak it as a second or foreign language.
Currently, the Russian language still ranks fourth in the world in terms of prevalence. The leading languages are English (it is estimated that 500 million people speak it as a native or second language, and over 1 billion more people speak it as a foreign language) and Chinese (it is spoken almost exclusively as a native language by over 1,350 million people (including Mandarin - over 900 million people). Third place is occupied by the Spanish language (about 360 million people speak it, including an estimated 335 million as native speakers). If current trends continue, in 10 years the number of people who know Russian to varying degrees will be reduced to 212 million people, and it will be surpassed by French (which is currently spoken by about 270 million people), Hindi/Urdu (260 million people), Arabic (230 million people), and by 2025, when the number of Russian speakers in various countries of the world will decrease to approximately 152 million people (that is, will reach the level of the beginning of the 20th century), the Russian language will be ahead of Portuguese (currently spoken by over 190 million people) and Bengali (about 190 million people). The dynamics of the spread of the Russian language in the world throughout the 20th century and the forecast for the next 20 years are shown in Fig. 8.
Figure 8. Trends in the spread of the Russian language in the 20th century and in the first quarter of the 21st century (assessment and forecast)
Of course, the role of a particular language in world civilization is determined not only by the number of its speakers (that is, those who speak it as a native language, as well as those who know it as a second or third (foreign) language. The level of economic, scientific and technological development plays an important role countries using this language, as well as areas of human activity in which the use of the corresponding language is a priority.The contribution of the national culture, based on a particular language, to world culture is also of no small importance.
The Russian language has great internal potential for further development and a rich cultural heritage. However, Russian is the only one of the 10-12 leading world languages that over the past 15 years has been steadily losing its position in all major regions of the world, and in the next 20 years this negative trend will continue (Table 7) unless adopted appropriate measures to effectively support the Russian language and culture within the country, in the near and far abroad.
Table 7. Forecast of the dynamics of the number of Russian language speakers in various countries/regions of the world in 2004-2025 (millions of people)
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Countries/regions of the world |
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CIS and Baltics |
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Eastern Europe and Balkans |
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Western Europe |
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Middle East and North Africa |
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Sub-Saharan Africa |
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Latin America |
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USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand |
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The possibility of maintaining the place of the Russian language among the 10 leading world languages in the foreseeable future depends primarily on the ability of the Russian economy in the coming years to overcome the raw materials bias and move to the production of knowledge and the export of educational and scientific-technical services, which are today the most popular human products in the world. activities. Therefore, priority development of the sphere of education and science and the introduction of new technologies on their basis into the production sector of the domestic economy is the only way to avoid sliding to the sidelines of scientific and technological progress and to revive interest in the Russian language and culture. At the same time, the volume of trade with the most industrially developed and populous countries and the scale of international tourism will continue to play a significant role in the spread of linguistic and cultural influence. The question is what exactly will Russia and its language be useful, interesting and attractive for representatives of various countries and peoples (the niche of a supplier of hydrocarbon raw materials for industrialized countries, as well as a manufacturer of weapons for Afro-Asian states, occupied today by the Russian Federation, objectively cannot contribute to a significant strengthening of the position of the Russian language).
An important direction in the dissemination of the Russian language is the training of foreign citizens in the Russian Federation, who acquire stable language skills during their studies. Therefore, the task is to strengthen the positions of Russian universities in the global education market, including by increasing the effectiveness of advertising their educational services, international recognition of Russian diplomas, etc. inseparable from strengthening state support for studying the Russian language abroad.
Strengthening the position of the Russian language in the world requires not only more significant resource provision, but also improved interaction between all state and public departments and organizations designed to support, develop and promote the Russian language and culture. At the same time, it is necessary to better take into account the specific characteristics of the following main groups of foreign and Russian citizens (in addition to students of educational institutions with Russian as the language of instruction and teachers of Russian studies), on whom all this work is focused:
- residents of countries near and far abroad who could potentially study the Russian language outside the academic sector in their homeland for educational, professional, everyday or cultural educational purposes;
- labor migrants from neighboring countries located in Russia;
- residents of non-CIS countries (adults, schoolchildren, students) who can potentially (and are inclined) to come to Russia to study the Russian language at various language courses;
- foreign students, interns, graduate students coming to study at Russian higher and other educational institutions;
- graduates of Soviet and Russian universities and their national associations, which exist today in almost 70 countries of the world;
- compatriots living in near and far abroad, for whom Russian is their native language;
- special attention must be paid to children of compatriots of the CIS countries, as well as children from Russian and mixed families in foreign countries, organizing group cultural, educational and educational trips to Russia for them;
- to harmonize cultural and linguistic relations in the Russian Federation, to encourage the study of the Russian language by children and youth of national republics, on the one hand, and to familiarize children and youth from Russian families with the culture and national languages, to develop domestic Russian cultural and linguistic tourism.
13 - Author’s calculations based on data from the embassies of the Russian Federation, national censuses and estimates of various experts. They generally correspond to the estimates of foreign research organizations studying the prevalence of world languages.