French is spoken by more people than Italian. I personally don't think either language will increase in importance in the forseeable future.

Question

Check this website for the 30 most widely spoken languages in the world.

http://www.krysstal.com/spoken.html

Is it worth to study Italian over French or vice versa?

Taking into consideration what the future holds, the linguistic demographics and applications, does anyone have an opinion based on broad experiences (seeing as mine is so narrow!)

I agree with Ms. Sue. A choice between Italian vs. French as languages to study comes down to your own heritage and travel and artistic preferences. I have recently begun to enjoy opera more and wish I understood more Italian. I sudied French for a year but usually don't have a clue what they are saying.

French is nice for getting around France, but I'd just as soon read the subtitles in their movies than try to understand the spoken language. I chose Spanish and German as my second and third languages and have regretted neither. Nowadays it mignt be wiser in terms of useful job skills to learn Chinese, Russian, Arabic or Farsi, as it becomes more important that we get along with countries that speak those languages. Spanish remains high on the list of useful languages.