Which countries study which languages, and what can we learn from it?

By @BozenaPajak. French and Spanish are in tight competition: French is one of the top two languages in 58% of all countries, and Spanish — in 46% of the countries. But in terms of the overall number of users, Spanish wins: it is studied by 17% of all Duolingo users, compared to only 11% for French. French also has a bit of an unfair advantage in that it’s available on Duolingo from two more languages than Spanish is.
Are French and Spanish popular in different parts of the world? Figures 4 and 5 show the percentage of Duolingo users per country learning French and Spanish, respectively. For French, the darkest regions are in Africa: In Nigeria and Sierra Leone, French is studied by over half of Duolingo users. For Spanish, on the other hand, the darkest regions are in North America and the English-speaking countries in the Caribbean. In Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, about 60% of Duolingo users are learning Spanish. More...