On GDP and language hierarchy

chili   Thu Apr 05, 2007 6:16 pm GMT
I've been reading through antimoon threads and users seem to love going into arguments about what language is most important after English. I like the subject but I also like hard figures. In one of the previous threads people were throwing GDP and GNP figures without bothering to check. GNP is outdated. You should look at the GNI figures as reported by the World Bank. There's also GDP in hard dollars and GDP in PPP figures. There's a difference in all three. However I consider GNI most relevant.

For total GNI the figure in billions of US dollars for
English is 15,000
Japan around 5000
German 3.500
Chinese 2.700 (does not include Chinese influence in SE Asia)
French 2,700 (France and roughly French parts of Canada, Blgium and Switzerland)
Spanish 2.600 (without Puerto Rico, Cuba and US)
Italian 1.760
The rest hover around 800 billion
Portuguese 850
Russian 800 (all Slavic countries of the former USSR plus Kazakhstan)
Hindi (India, really) 800
Korean 800
Dutch 800
Arabic around 800 (I frankly lost patience adding those)

All figures are approximate.
Hispanic contribution to the US would definitely propel it higher.

GDP in US dollars (World Bank, 2005)
Spain+Mexico around 1,900
Russia 764

GDP PPP
Spain +Mexico 2,185
Russia 1,560

I am mentioning this in particular as it came up very recently.
There's more, however, to the hierarchy of usefulness and importance. Antimooners, try contributing with real figures. Thanks.