It is probable that all the countries in temperate zones will have universal literacy by the end of the century. In this case, even if no one read English outside its vernacular countries, it would still hold its own as the leading literary language. German and French are bound to fall off relatively as vernaculars, and this implies a falling off of their importance as culture languages; but the importance of English in this respect is bound to grow. The first place among foreign languages has been given to it in the schools of many European and South American countries; Mexico and Japan make it compulsory in all schools of upper grades; and China is to follow Japan in this respect as soon as the work can be organized.
The number of people who can actually read, or will learn if now too young, for the various languages of the world appears to be as follows:
| Number in Millions | Per Cent | |
| English | 136 | 27.2 |
| German | 82 | 16.4 |
| Chinese[A] | 70 | 14.0 |
| French | 28 | 9.6 |
| Russian | 30 | 6.0 |
| Arabic | 25 | 5.0 |
| Italian | 18 | 4.6 |
| Spanish | 12 | 2.6 |
| Scandinavian | 11 | 2.2 |
| Dutch and Flemish | 9 | 1.9 |
| Minor European[B] | 34 | 6.8 |
| Minor Asiatic[B] | 16 | 3.2 |
| Minor African and Polynesian [B] | 2+ | 0.5 |
| Total | 473+ | 100.0 |
Note A: Not a spoken language, but a system of writing.
Note B: None representing as much as 1 per cent of total.
English, therefore, now leads all other languages in the number of its readers. Three-fourths of the world's mail matter is addressed in English. More than half of the world's newspapers are printed in English, and, as they have a larger circulation than those in other languages, probably three-fourths of the world's newspaper reading is done in English.
The languages next in importance, French and German, cannot maintain their relative positions because English has more than half of the new land in the temperate zone and they have none. The languages which have the rest of the new territory, Spanish and Russian, are not established as culture languages, as English is. No other language, not even French or German, has a vernacular so uniform and well established, and with so few variations from the literary language. English is spoken in the United States by more than fifty million people with so slight variations that no foreigner would ever notice them. No other language whatever can show more than a fraction of this number of persons who speak so nearly alike.
It is then probable that, within the century, English will be the vernacular of a quarter instead of a tenth of the people of the world, and be read by a half instead of a quarter of the people who can read.