Language Breakdown for the Top 5 Facebook Outside US

In a previous blog post, we talked about the top countries with the most Facebook users. And the top 10 countries outside US are namely Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, United Kingdom, Turkey, Philippines, France, Germany and Italy.

In this blog post, we will take a closer look at the language breakdown (i.e. number of users per language) for each of the top 5 Facebook countries. So if you’re aiming to expand to those countries, you know what languages you should translate into.

Top Languages on Facebook in Brazil

Brazil, the biggest market after the United States, is relatively homogeneous in terms of language preference. Close to 50 millions (96.4%) Brazilian Facebook users have chosen Brazilian Portuguese as their default language to browse Facebook, indicating a strong preference for local language. Although US English is already the second most popular language, it only has roughly 0.9 millions (1.8%) users.

Top Languages on Facebook in India

When looking at India, the second largest market outside the US, the situation is a bit different.  Although Hindi is the native language of a lot of people in India, less than 1% of the Facebook population in India has chosen Hindi as their default language. Instead, US English and UK English combined has over 44.7 millions (99.5%) users.

Top Languages on Facebook in Indonesia

Indonesia, the third largest market in the list also shows a strong preference for local language like Brazil. Over 37.3 millions (85.2%) Facebook users in Indonesia are browsing Facebook in Indonesian. US English, which is the second most popular language, has roughly 5.6 millions (12.9%) users.

Top Languages on Facebook in Mexico

Moving down the list to Mexico, the preference for local language continues. Over 25.7 millions (72.8%) Facebook users in Mexico are browsing Facebook in Spanish. Combining this number with the Spanish (Spain) users, there are a total of over 33.6 millions (95.4%) Spanish users. US English, which is the second most popular language, has only around 1.4 millions (3.9%) users.

Top Languages on Facebook in United Kingdom

For United Kingdom, the fifth largest market outside US, UK English is obviously the top choice among UK Facebook users with over 18.3 millions (59.9%) users. Combining this number with US English, there are over 29.2 millions (95.6%) users browsing Facebook in English. Polish is the top language after English, with approximately 0.3 millions (0.9%) users.

Strong Preference for Local Language

From looking at the language breakdown of for each of the top 5 Facebook countries, one can clearly see the strong preference for local language.

As mentioned in a previous blog post, the Facebook App Center is now available worldwide. Any websites or mobile apps that use Facebook Connect are eligible to be listed on the Facebook App Center. So if you are planning to leverage Facebook to grow your websites or mobile apps, you should consider localizing your app into the top languages on Facebook.

Facebook has made it easy for developers to post localized content for their apps. For the detailed process of configuring your apps, go to the tutorial on App Center Internationalization provided by Facebook for developers.

This post is written by OneSky, a translation management platform specifically designed for mobile apps and websites. Find out more.