The table illustrates the number of native speakers and non-native speakers speaking six different languages: Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic and Portuguese.
It is noticeable that the number of speakers using Mandarin Chinese is by far the most. Also significant is that English has the largest number of people choosing English as a second language.
Mandarin Chinese is the most popular language, with 1090 million speakers, compared to 942 million speakers speaking English. However, while only 109 million people choose Chinese as a second language, 603 million world's inhabitants consider English as an extra language.
Over four other languages, Portuguese receives the lowest speakers, with 213 million total speakers, compared to 230 million Arabic and 420 Spanish speakers. Interestingly, the figure for native Hindi speakers is the second highest in six languages, with 370 million speakers, even though the total number of Hindi speakers is fewer than that of English and Chinese speakers.
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