English-speaking world

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Nations in which English is an official language (de facto or de jure). Anglosphere countries are a subset of those where English is the main native language.
  Official as majority language
  Official as minority language
  Co-official as majority language
  Co-official as minority language
  Unofficial[clarification needed]
  Not official as majority language
  Not official as minority language
The term "majority language" is here defined as a language of which more than 50% of the population have some command. It does not mean that this command is native, nor that English is the most widely used language of the respective country.

Over 2 billion people speak English[1][2]. English is the largest language by number of speakers,[3] and the third largest language by number of native speakers[4]. With 300 million native speakers, the United States of America is the largest English speaking country. As pictured in the pie graph below, most native speakers of English are Americans.

Additionally, there are 79 million native English speakers in Nigeria, 92 million in the Philippines, 60 million in the United Kingdom, 45 million in Germany, 30 million in Bangladesh, 29 million in Canada, 25.1 million in Australia,[citation needed] 4.7 million in the Republic of Ireland, and 4.9 million in New Zealand. Other countries such as Ghana and Uganda also use English as their primary and official languages.

In the European Union, English is one of 24 official languages and is widely used by institutions and majority of population as native (United Kingdom and Ireland) and as a second language in other member states.

Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly, from 470 million to more than 2 billion. [5] David Crystal calculates that, as of 2003, non-native speakers outnumbered native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[6] When combining native and non-native speakers, English is the most widely spoken language worldwide.

Besides the major varieties of English, such as British English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, Irish English, New Zealand English and their sub-varieties, countries such as South Africa, India, the Philippines, Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from English-based creole languages to Standard English.


Majority English-speaking countries[edit]

  The Anglosphere - Countries where English is spoken natively by the majority of the population.

There are six large countries with a majority of native English speakers that are sometimes grouped under the term Anglosphere. In numbers of English speakers they are: the United States of America (at least 231 million),[8] the United Kingdom (in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and, Wales) (60 million),[9][10][11] Canada (at least 20 million),[12] Australia (at least 17 million),[13] Republic of Ireland (4.8 million) and New Zealand (4.8 million).[14]


  United States (64%)
  United Kingdom (16.6%)
  Canada (5.3%)
  Australia (4.7%)
  South Africa (1.3%)
  Ireland (1.3%)
  New Zealand (1.3%)
  Other (5.5%)

English is also the primary natively spoken language in the countries and territories of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Guyana, the Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jersey, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Other substantial communities of native speakers are found in South Africa (4.8 million)[16] and Nigeria (79 million, 53%). [17]

Countries where English is an official language[edit]


India has the largest number of second-language speakers of English (see Indian English); Crystal (2004) claims that combining native and non-native speakers, India has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world. However, most scholars and research that has been conducted dispute his assertions.[18] Pakistan also has the English language (Pakistani English) as a second official language after the Urdu language as the result of British rule (raj). Sri Lanka And The Philippines use the English language, too, as the second and third official language after Sinhala, Tamil, and Filipino.


Although the United States federal government has no official languages, English has been given official status by 32 of the 50 US state governments.[20][21] Furthermore, per United States nationality law, the process of becoming a naturalized citizen of the US entails a basic English proficiency test, which may be the most prominent example of the claim of the nation not having an official language being belied by policy realities.


English as a global language[edit]

     States and territories in which English is the first language of the majority of the population.
     States and territories in which English is an official, but not the majority language.

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as a "world language", the lingua franca of the modern era,[22] and while it is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a foreign language.[23] It is, by international treaty, the official language for aeronautical[24] and maritime[25] communications. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations and many other international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee. It is also one of two co-official languages for astronauts (besides the Russian language) serving on board the International Space Station.[citation needed]

English is studied most often in the European Union, and the perception of the usefulness of foreign languages among Europeans is 67 percent in favour of English ahead of 17 percent for German and 16 percent for French (as of 2012). Among some of the non-English-speaking EU countries, the following percentages of the adult population claimed to be able to converse in English in 2012: 90 percent in the Netherlands, 89 percent in Malta, 86 percent in Sweden and Denmark, 73 percent in Cyprus, Croatia, and Austria, 70 percent in Finland, and over 50 percent in Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Germany. In 2012, excluding native speakers, 38 percent of Europeans consider that they can speak English.[26]

Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world, and English is the most commonly used language in the sciences[22] with Science Citation Index reporting as early as 1997 that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English-speaking countries.

In publishing, English literature predominates considerably with 28 percent of all books published in the world [leclerc 2011][full citation needed] and 30 percent of web content in 2011 (down from 50 percent in 2000).[27]

This increasing use of the English language globally has had a large impact on many other languages, leading to language shift and even language death,[28] and to claims of linguistic imperialism. English itself has become more open to language shift as multiple regional varieties feed back into the language as a whole.[29]


  2. ^ "Two thousand million?".
  4. ^ "List of languages by total number of speakers, Ethnologue 2019".
  5. ^ "Two thousand million?".
  7. ^ BBC News 27 Nov 2012: English or Hinglish - which will India choose?
  8. ^ Ryan 2013, Table 1.
  9. ^ Office for National Statistics 2013, Key Points.
  10. ^ National Records of Scotland 2013.
  11. ^ Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency 2012, Table KS207NI: Main Language.
  12. ^ Statistics Canada 2014.
  13. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013.
  14. ^ Statistics New Zealand 2014.
  17. ^ "Two thousand million?".
  18. ^ Crystal 2004b.
  20. ^ "U.S. English, Inc". U.S. English. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
  27. ^ Northrup 2013.

