The whole world speaks English, doesn’t it?

On average, Americans tend to believe half the people in the world speak English. At least, that’s what the now well-known Harrison report found in 1998.   Wherever you go, someone will understand you if you speak English. There are so many countries with English as official language it might not even seem like a big surprise. But is it really so? How would we find out the real number?  

Before we start counting

What we could do is list all the English speaking countries, count their citizens and be done with it. We could also focus on native English speakers and make the matter even simpler. These options would definitely give us some results.   Turns out it’s pretty hard finding out how many people in the world speak English. A simple count and sum will not suffice, and here’s why.   Before we start counting, we need to know what we are supposed to count. If we were counting sheep, could we just have a quick look at the field and count all the woolly animals we are able to see? Would we also be counting lambs? Some dogs are quite woolly and could easily sneak into our flock. Do we need to inspect each individual sheep to make sure no lambs or dogs would make the tally? You get the idea.   So first things first, let’s answer this:
  • Do we count only native speakers?
  • What forms of English are we accepting?
  • What about people who learn English as a second language?
 

What are we counting?

Our sheep metaphor might be a bit on the nose, but it does get one point across – we need to be sure what we are counting. How do we identify English speakers? Do they need to pass a test? Or is it enough to be born in a country where everyone speaks English?   Basically, we are talking about a cut-off line. We’ve all failed a test or two in our lives. So one could wonder if native speakers should make the list if they failed all their English exams? How polished would your English need to be, to be seen as part of the English speaking world? How many books would you exactly need to read?  

How do you define a language?

To muddy the waters even further, we might also ask – what is a language? It sounds like a philosophical question but just bear with us for a second.   The English language has many varieties across the globe and within the Anglosphere. There’s British, American, Canadian, Australian, Irish, and New Zealand English. Variations are also spoken in South Africa, India, the Philippines, Jamaica, and Nigeria. A few million people speak dialects and English-based creole. Those can be quite different from Standard English.   There are dialects and there are slang varieties in vocabulary. Strictly speaking, people from the above-mentioned countries with English as a first language might be speaking different languages altogether. At the same time, they might be perfectly able to communicate with each other. They might, for instance, exchange recipes without problems.  

What about those who are still learning English?

By the time we are done counting, we might have a fresh batch of people speaking English. Those are people learning English as a foreign language. If they’ve passed their tests, shouldn’t we include these wonderful nerds in our count?   We would be amiss to leave them out. They might not be native speakers but surely all their hard work must count for something.  

So, how many people speak English?

Around 370 million people in the world speak English, according to this article. It’s an impressive number, no doubt about it, but it’s not the first or second most common language – according to Wikipedia, it’s the third.   So how come the people from the Harrison Report think half the world speaks English? Is it because it’s particularly easy to learn? Well, yes and no.   English is spoken in a staggering number of countries, one hundred and one, to be precise. It’s one of the official languages of the United Nations. It is even spoken in outer space – in the International Space Station.   Let’s not forget, 898 million people learn it as a second language worldwide (The Washington Post). While part of its allure might be anglocentric thinking, English is the most popular second language in the world. Many are choosing to learn it every day.   It might be hard to gauge what percentage of the world speaks English, but the numbers seem to be rising. As one researcher says, we have moved in 25 years from a fifth to a quarter to one-third of the world’s population. The numbers do confirm one thing though – English is a global language, a true lingua franca.