the world('s) population speak/speaks [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• Should we use plural or singular for a fraction of a mile? 7 answers

Which one is correct:

1- 4.23% of the world (world's) population SPEAKS Arabic.

2- 4.23% of the world (world's) population SPEAK Arabic.

Answer 1

This is a special case. When you have a subject of a sentence which describes a portion (fraction, percentage, all, etc.), you do look to the object of the preposition for its number. See Rule 9 in http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp "this Grammar Book online resource". For example, one would say "4% of teachers eat bread" but "4% of my house smells terrible." So the correct answer in this case is "4.23% of the world's population speak*s* Arabic."

Answer 2

The choice mostly depends on the object of the preposition. If the object of the preposition is plural it could be speak. If the object of the preposition is singular, then speaks would be correct — as in:

4.23% of the world speaks

But I believe we need to pay attention to the term population — which is a collective noun.