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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has the highest proportion of citizens that have registered on language-learning app Duolingo in the last year, according to a new study by the Pittsburgh-based company.
The popular app is a free platform designed to help users learn languages and track their progress with language proficiency exams and games. The app offers courses and tests for nearly 70 languages and has been downloaded by millions around the globe.
This year, Duolingo discovered that 6.78 percent of Utah’s population registered on the app in the past year, more than any other state.
“But why Utah?” Duolingo questioned. “One hypothesis is that as the state where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is headquartered, Utah has a high number of people learning languages as they prepare to take international mission trips.”
California (at 6.39 percent), Colorado, New Jersey, Florida, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas and Oregon make up the rest of the top 10. Mississippi ranked last with a percentage of 2.17 percent of the population registered on Duolingo in the last year.
The most popular language among Utahns is Spanish, with 46.5 percent of users registered for the course. French is the second most popular at 16.2 percent, German comes in at 9.5 percent and Japanese at 6 percent.
Spanish is the most popular language in all 50 states by a wide margin with an average of 45.4 percent of users registered for the course. French is the second most popular in most states, though English from Spanish is the second most popular language in several states with a high number of Spanish speakers.
German is the third-most-popular language among users in the Midwest and northwestern U.S. French is the third most popular language in the southern and southwestern states where English from Spanish is the second most popular language.
While the Beehive State has the highest percentage of users, Utahns aren’t the most dedicated to the app.
Duolingo lets users maintain a streak if they meet their daily goal for a certain amount of time. Meeting a goal for three days means the user has a three-day streak going. If they miss the goal for a day, the streak count goes back to 0.
Some of the states with a low number of language learners — like North Dakota and Montana — were the most likely to make language learning a habit with long streaks. States with a high number of users — like Florida, New Jersey and Texas — didn’t show the same results.
