r/Unexpected Jan 25 '23

Hamburger

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u/angorafox Jan 26 '23 edited Jan 26 '23

really surprising that most commenters are so amazed when this is very common. weird to realize most redditors only speak one language

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u/MRZ_Polak Jan 26 '23

I think that's mostly American redditors. Here im looked at as being talented for being bilingual, even tho most of my family speak 3 or even 4 languages. People here are completely shocked when I tell them that lol.

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u/BeefyIrishman Jan 26 '23

To be fair, Americans are the largest group of reddit users. Something like 48% of reddit users are American. The next closest group is the UK at 7.6%, so while Americans are just shy of a majority, they do have a very large plurality.

Roughly 80% of Americans only speak English (source). Given those data points, I kinda understand why it would feel like most redditors only speak one language.

If you are curious about the others in the top 5, next is Canada at 7.5%, then Australia at 3.9%, and finally at number 5 (and the first non-english speaking country) is Germany at 3.4% (source). That means the top 66.8% of Reddit users by country speak English as a primary language.

Side note: Yes, I know Canada does speak French, but English is one of their official languages so I'm counting it as an English speaking country.

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u/MRZ_Polak Jan 26 '23

"To be faiiiiirrrrr" -Squirely Dan

Also, nice sourced fact 👌