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Number of Russian Language Learners Worldwide Halved Since Soviet Collapse
Russian is a diminishing language at home (negative demographic curve) and abroad.
11/28/19
The number of people studying Russian worldwide has halved in the 30 years since the Soviet Union collapsed and is anticipated to decline further, according to state estimates cited by the RBC news website Thursday. Russian ranks as the world’s 10th-most widespread language with speakers in 27 countries, according to a report by the Higher Education Ministry’s subsidiary obtained by RBC. The number of Russian language learners has fallen from 74.6 million in the early 1990s to 38.2 million in 2018, the ministry’s subsidiary, the Center for Scientific Research, said. “If nothing is done, the situation may become tragic by 2025,” co-author Alexander Arefyev told RBC. According to the cited research, the number of students learning Russian outside ex-U.S.S.R. republics fell from 20 million to a little over 1 million. The research center forecasts the total number of Russian speakers worldwide to decline from 243 million in 2015 to 215 million in 2025.
Russian is a diminishing language at home (negative demographic curve) and abroad.