Ethnologue lists 6,912 living languages in the world today. But, according to the United Nations, just 20 languages are shared by hundreds of millions people in several countries all over the world. And, half of the people living today only use nine different languages on a daily basis (Chinese (1,2 billion people), English (478 million), Hindi (437 million), Spanish (392 million), Russian (284 million), Arabic (225 million), Portuguese (184 million), French and German (each 125 million).

In 2050, according to a model of language use that The English Company developed and named "engco,” there will be 1,384 million native speakers of Chinese, 556 million of Hindi and Urdu, and 508 million of English. It also states that Spanish and Arabic will be almost as common as English, with 486 million and 482 million speakers respectively.

Focus on Hindi in India
India could possibly be as close as the world comes to Babel. Eighteen languages are officially recognized by the constitution and over 1600 minor languages and dialects were listed in the 2001 census. Language is a heavily politicized issue, not least because many state boundaries have been drawn on linguistic lines.

Hindi is the official language of multilingual India. Native speakers of Hindi dialects account for nearly 40% of the Indian population (2001 Indian census). However, English is the language of business and higher education throughout India. Though English is not an official language in India, the country is home to the third largest population of English speakers in the world, surpassed only by the U.S. and the U.K.