Bilingualism is more common than monolingualism

Bilingualism is often treated as something exceptional, something different, while monolingualism is treated as the norm. Yet in fact it is the other way about. In a survey based on census data from just under ¼ of the countries in the world, Dr. Parkvall found that about ⅓ of the global population is monolingual, while ⅔ are bi-/multilingual. In other words: bilingualism is much more common than monolingualism.

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It's important to keep in mind that this study is based on available census data. This means that the data is likely to be skewed towards nations that have the infrastructure in place to carry out censuses. It also means that the data is dependent on censuses allowing for bi-/multilingualism. A census that demands that respondents choose only one language risks skewing the data by not giving space to multilingualism. In other words, it is likely that the monolingual proportion is overrepresented due to census bias.

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We thank Dr. Mikael Parkvall (Department of Linguistics, University of Stockholm) for letting us use his ongoing survey.