This year's report investigates how those patterns have evolved in 2021. In 2020, the Duolingo Language Report noted record growth of new learners who started studying a language during the pandemic, whether to keep up with schoolwork or connect with people around the world. It's no surprise that Duolingo's Most 2021 Phrase was 'I am mentally exhausted.' Much of the globe continued to cycle through stay-at-home orders, delayed return-to-office plans, and ever-changing health policies-but the year was not without bright spots, including vaccines, the Olympics and UEFA Euro tournament, and plenty of captivating TV.Īnd for millions of people, language learning was another bright spot.

The results of the 2021 Duolingo Language Report clearly show that learners continue to turn to languages to build bridges with cultures and people, across distances we can't quite traverse in person-yet.įor learners around the world, 2021 wasn't the return-to-normal we had been envisioning since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, our data offers unique insights into what languages learners worldwide want to study and how their interests change over time and geography. Duolingo is the world's most downloaded education app, and we offer over 100 courses teaching 40 languages-all for free. The 2021 Duolingo Language Report presents the latest language trends and learner behaviors based on data from over 500 million Duolingo learners around the globe.