Geographical_distribution_of_English_speakers

List of countries by English-speaking population

List of countries by English-speaking population

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The following is a list of English-speaking population by country, including information on both native speakers and second-language speakers.

Countries in which English is a mandatory (blue) or optional (yellow) subject

Percentage of English native speakers (2017)
Image of a map showing the total percent of the English-speaking population by country
Percent of total English-speaking population by country

List

More information Country, Eligible population ...
  • European Union The European Union is a supranational union composed of 27 member states. The total English-speaking population of the European Union and the United Kingdom combined (2012) is 256,876,220[63] (out of a total population of 500,000,000,[64] i.e. 51%) including 65,478,252 native speakers and 191,397,968 non-native speakers, and would be ranked 2nd if it were included. English native speakers amount to 13% of the whole population of the EU and the UK, while the percentage of people that speak English "well enough in order to be able to have a conversation", either as first (32%), second (11%) or third (3%) foreign language, was 38%.
  • When taken from this list and added together, the total number of English speakers in the world adds up to around 1,430,000,000. Likewise, the total number of native English speakers adds up to around 410,000,000. This implies that there are approximately 1,020,000,000 people who speak English as an additional language.

See also

Non-English speaking populations:


Notes

  1. Statistics on second language speakers are inevitably not precise; partly because there is no widely agreed definition of second language speakers – there is no differentiation between countries where English is the lingua franca and those where it is not.
  2. "Age by Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and over: 2011–2015 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  3. "How languages intersect in India". Hindustan Times. 22 November 2018. Archived from the original on 22 November 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  4. "The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on 13 June 2007. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  5. Leitner, Gerhard; Hashim, Azirah; Wolf, Hans-Georg (11 January 2016). Communicating with Asia: The Future of English as a Global Language. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107062610.
  6. "English — more than a subject". Dawn. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017. The report said English was deeply penetrated into the Pakistani society as it had one of the largest English-speaking populations of the world and claimed that 49pc population (88.69 million people) could speak English.
  7. "Mapped: The world by English-speaking population". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 30 November 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  8. "English Speakers By Country". worldatlas.com. 14 May 2018. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 20 June 2022. Pakistan has the third largest number of English speakers in the world at 108,036,049 speakers.
  9. "Here's how Pakistan ranks among world's English speaking countries". The Express Tribune. Archived from the original on 26 December 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
  10. "Which Countries Have the Most English Speakers? – K International". www.k-international.com. 27 February 2017. Archived from the original on 29 August 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  11. "Languages in Nigeria 2021, by number of speakers". Statista. Archived from the original on 1 November 2022. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  12. "Nigerian English". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University. Archived from the original on 15 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  13. "2011 Census: Quick Statistics for England and Wales, March 2011". Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original on 25 August 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  14. Total population: Census 2010. Proportion of total speakers: Census 2000,"The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines". text above Figure 7
  15. Proportion of native speakers: Census 1995, as quoted by Andrew Gonzalez in 1625 "The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines" Archived 16 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 19 (5&6), 487–525, p. 492: 67.04% of the then 68.4 million people were native speakers of English. 1998.
  16. From mid-2009 to late 2013 this entry overstated the number of native speakers by roughly 100fold, and inflated the number of total speakers, on the alleged basis of material in "Philippines". Ethnologue. 19 February 1999. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.. In fact, Ethnologue Archived 10 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine as of 24 December 2013 simply repeats the number of native speakers, 20,000, reported in Crystal 2003, on the basis of an old (pre-1995) census, and does not address total speakers at all. This attempt to correct these errors in turn perpetrates both error and original research, by applying the old percentages listed above, 63.71% of people over 5 as total speakers in 2000, and .04% of people as native speakers in 1995, to the 2010 totals from Philippines in Figures, 2013, Chapter 5, Demography Archived 26 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine, tables 5.1 and 5.6. Andrew Gonzalez died in 2006; someone else's attention to the 2010 census figures, which appear not to be online and may not have been printed yet in adequate detail, is needed to produce reliable, more or less current, numbers.
  17. "Educational Characteristics of the Filipinos". 2000 Census of population and Housing. 18 March 2005. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  18. "French speaking English". Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  19. "Census Profile, 2016 Census". www.statcan.gc.ca. 8 February 2017. Archived from the original on 10 December 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  20. "Census 2016, Proficiency in Spoken English/Language by Age by Sex". Australian Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  21. Md Khaled Bin Chowdhury (9 March 2018). "Bangla Rules in All Domains of National Life". Daily Sun. Archived from the original on 25 April 2019.
  22. "Poland languages". Archived from the original on 29 December 2022. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  23. "2010 Population & Housing Census" (PDF). Statsghana.gov.gh. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 September 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  24. Census 2011: Census in brief (PDF). Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. 2012. p. 30. ISBN 9780621413885. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2015.
  25. Roy Campos; Ana María Hernández (January 2013). "Mexicanos Y Los Idiomas Extranjeros" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
  26. "Resultados definitivos". Archived from the original on 24 August 2007. Retrieved 24 October 2007.
  27. "EF English Proficiency Index – A comprehensive ranking of countries by English skills". Ef.com. Archived from the original on 11 March 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  28. "English Proficiency in Asia". Cudy Technologies Blog. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  29. "Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) – Zimbabwe | Data". data.worldbank.org. Archived from the original on 24 May 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  30. "Zimbabwe, Demographic and Health Survey 2010" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  31. Kadenge, Maxwell (2010). "Zimbabwean English: A sociophonological exploration". South African Journal of African Languages. 30: 35–51. doi:10.1080/02572117.2010.10587334. S2CID 153066779. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  32. Jian Yang (April 2006). "Learners and users of English in China". English Today. 22 (2): 3–10. doi:10.1017/S0266078406002021. S2CID 145247004.. Quote: "What this suggests, it seems, is that Yan’s (2004) ten million may after all be a more informed estimate of the actual regular users of English in China." (page 9)"
  33. "Moroccans speak English". Archived from the original on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  34. Languages of Israel Archived 3 February 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Ethnologue.com
  35. Multilingualism in Israel Archived 30 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Bar-Ilan University – Faculty of Humanities : Language Policy Research Center.
  36. "ERIC – English Language Teaching Profile: Israel., 1976-Dec". Eric.ed.gov. Archived from the original on 15 June 2010. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  37. Eurobarometer report 2012
  38. "Népszámlálás 2022". Archived from the original on 8 December 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  39. "Do people speak English in Prague and Czech Republic". Archived from the original on 29 December 2022. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  40. Resident population according to main language Archived 30 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Federal Statistical Office, Neuchâtel 2008
  41. "English language in Switzerland". Archived from the original on 1 September 2017. Retrieved 18 April 2009.
  42. "Does everyone in Norway speak perfect English". The Local. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  43. "The most complete list of English schools and courses in Ireland". Travbla.com. Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  44. "Proportion of population aged 10 years and over, by ability to speak, ability to read and write main languages sex and sector" (PDF). statistics.gov.lk. Department of Census and Statistics. 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 February 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  45. Bopha, Phorn (2016). "Bilingual Cambodians See Pathways to Progress". VOA Cambodia. Archived from the original on 24 January 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  46. "Sociedad :: Los idiomas de los argentinos" (in Spanish). Página/12. Archived from the original on 14 January 2007. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  47. "¿Qué porcentaje de la población colombiana habla inglés?". Colombiestad.gov.co. 1 May 2006. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  48. "Islander Creole English". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  49. "Special Reports | Brits Abroad". BBC News. Archived from the original on 3 January 2007. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  50. "2011 census of Bulgaria" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 July 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  51. "Síntesis de resultados Censo 2012" (PDF) (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas. Retrieved 2 April 2013.[permanent dead link]
  52. "'Encuesta Telefónica de Idiomas' ETI 2019, page 24". www.ine.gub.uy. Archived from the original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  53. Edrinnie Kayambizinthu (1998). "The Language Planning Situation in Malawi" (PDF). Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 19 (5&6): 369. doi:10.1080/01434639808666363. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2008.
  54. "Does Everyone Speak English in Iceland? – Visit Iceland". Archived from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  55. "Sistemas de Consulta". Archived from the original on 14 December 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  56. "European and their languages 2012" (PDF). Eurobarometer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 January 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  57. "Population at 1 January". Eurostat. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 2 January 2013.

References


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