92% of adults in the United Kingdom think learning languages is important

That's a single number from a recent poll featured in an article here. The poll was commissioned by CILT, the National Centre for Languages. The languages parents most want their children to learn according to the poll are French, Spanish and German.

Navigating their site a bit provides another recent survey, which shows that language graduates make more money 3.5 years after graduation than those that graduated in Engineering, Mathematical Sciences, Physics, Astronomy and Chemistry.