France, March 20 -- With 396 million speakers worldwide in 2025 compared to standard Arabic's 335 million, French comes in behind English, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish as one of the world's most used languages, according to figures from the International Organisation of Francophonie (OIF).

People in France make up only 66 million of the total, says the organisation, which is dedicated to promoting the French language and ties between French-speaking countries.

Nearly 65 percent of French speakers live on the African continent. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has the largest number, with just over 57 million French speakers, followed by Algeria with more than 15 million and Morocco with nearly 14 million.

As European popu...