What percentage of people in the world are multilingual?

Answer 1

The exact number of multilingual people in the world is impossible to know for sure because there are several factors that define the term "multilingual." The most common way to describe someone as multilingual is someone who can effectively communicate in more than one language. The percentage of people who fall into this category is well over 50%. The number drops somewhat if your definition is limited to "simultaneous multilingual" people. These are people that use more than one language at a native level of fluency. We see this in the children of immigrants, like the many millions of Latinos that grow up in the United States who can speak both Spanish and English perfectly, and in people that live in an area where a minority language is spoken, like the Basques in Spain who are simultaneously bilingual in Basque and Spanish.

Answer 2

Approximately 60% of the world's population is multilingual, meaning they can speak two or more languages fluently. Factors like globalization, migration, and language education contribute to the high number of multilingual individuals globally.