The English language spread throughout the world in the 17th century thanks to the influence of the British Empire, which previously controlled most of the planet. Now English is the official language for more than fifty countries, an impressive part of which are former English colonies. Statistics show that English is one of the three most spoken languages in terms of the number of speakers, second only to Spanish and Chinese. But when it comes to business and international communication, then English has no equal. Economy, sports, science, diplomacy – in any field, when it comes to the international level, all countries of the world use English. The importance of the language and translate arabic to english was mentioned, let’s move on to the countries …
Main English-speaking countries
First of all, English is associated with the two largest English-speaking countries – the US and the UK. But there is a whole list of countries where English is the official language. Some of them you probably didn’t even know about. So, let’s list: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, India, Bahamas, Nigeria, Botswana, South Africa, Singapore, Philippines, Guinea, Gambia, Cameroon, Kenya, Hong Kong, Malta, Pakistan, Fiji, Sudan, Jamaica and others.
Of course, the list of English-speaking countries is much longer, but we have listed the most expected and unexpected ones. And now let’s take a closer look at the parts of the world …
Asian countries
India is the leader in the number of English speakers – 265 million people. Suddenly? But a fact!
In China, despite the fact that many universities teach in English, less than 10% of the population are native speakers.
In Japan, things are slightly better – about 20% of the population speaks English at an intermediate or elementary level.
There are over 4.2 million English speakers in Singapore, which is over 80% of the total population.
In the Philippines, more than 60 million people speak English, which is approximately 70%. Also quite an amazing fact!
Countries of North and South America
About 297 million are native speakers living in the US.
30 million are residents of Canada.
There are about 14 million English speakers in Central and South America. English speakers live in Argentina (5.9 million), Puerto Rico (1.7 million), Chile (1.97 million), Colombia (2 million).
European countries
Most of the speakers in the United Kingdom – 60 million people. Northern Ireland – 1.7 million people, Wales and England – more than 49.8 million, Scotland – 5.1 million.
Scandinavia has a good level – more than 80% speak English and translate english to french. The Scandinavian countries are generally very different from other European countries in terms of language skills. Most residents are fluent in about three languages (at least).
In Germany – 45.8 million. Here people perceive English as a second language.
In Italy, 20.7 million people speak English.
France has 25.4 million English speakers.
In Spain and the Czech Republic, only 11% of the population speaks English.
Middle East countries
In the UAE, more than 85% of the population is fluent in spoken English.
In Israel, it is spoken by over 80% of the country’s population.
In Iraq, 35% are native English speakers.
African countries
Over 200 million people in Africa use English as a second language.
The majority of English speakers live in Nigeria – 111 million people know some English.
There are 16 million English speakers in South Africa.
Oceania countries
In Oceania, about 30 million people speak English.
Australia – 22 million.
4 million – New Zealand, but still the majority of citizens speak New Zealand English.
New Guinea – 3.2 million people speak English.
Fiji – approximately 200,000 people.
Caribbean countries
There are about 18 countries in the Caribbean where English is the official language. Even in the regions, most people understand and communicate clearly in English.
Take Jamaica, the most populous island in the Caribbean, as an example. More than 2 million English speakers live here.
