English speaking countries

English is an official language in 41 countries and is partly spoken as a mother tongue in 18 other countries. The English language has its roots in the Indo-European language family.

With 272.48 million native speakers, English has the highest prevalence in the United States of America. As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 100 percent is in the Bermudas. A total of about 456.0 million people worldwide speak English as their mother tongue.

Origins of the English language

Despite today's worldwide distribution and its designation as a world language, English is a Germanic language and used to be spoken exclusively in England — the south-eastern part of Great Britain. The Angles and Saxons had a great influence on the language, which is why English is still occasionally referred to as "Anglo-Saxon." The language has changed several times since the middle of the first millennium over several stages of development and has been influenced by Danish, Norwegian and French, while retaining its essential West Germanic traits.

From the British mainland, it initially displaced the Celtic languages on the surrounding islands. The British colonial rule over numerous overseas territories in all parts of the world has spread the English language since the 16th century — albeit initially only in very limited regions. Due to the British Empire and the increased settlement of North America, Africa and Australia, English became increasingly important. Today it is the most widely spoken language when second and school languages are taken into account.

English is the official language in many countries and for some decades was also in international organisations such as the European and African Union, ASEAN and the United Nations.

Varieties and mixture of languages

English is now the first foreign language taught in many countries. In many countries, so-called varieties have developed that use English as a basis, but mix it with national language characteristics. The best known example of this is the difference between British and American English. Although most words sound identical, words are sometimes pronounced or written in different variations depending on the region, like "grey" or "gray." Examples like this can be found in almost all countries.

In the opposite case, the English language is not adapted to one's own dialect, but Anglicisms are formed by incorporating English words into one's own vocabulary. In many languages, for example, the term "computer" is used, although it is a purely English word.

Country	Region	Official language	Distribution	Total
United States of America	North America	yes	82.1 %	272,485,000
United Kingdom	Northern Europe	yes	97.3 %	65,509,000
India	South Asia	yes	3.2 %	45,625,000
Canada	North America	yes	58.7 %	22,450,000
Australia	Australia/New Zealand	yes	76.8 %	19,728,000
South Africa	Southern Africa	yes	9.6 %	5,702,000
Ghana	Western Africa	yes	15.3 %	5,023,000
Ireland	Northern Europe	yes	98.4 %	4,953,000
New Zealand	Australia/New Zealand	yes	72.6 %	3,719,000
Philippines	Southeast Asia	yes	2.2 %	2,505,000
Singapore	Southeast Asia	yes	29.8 %	1,625,000
Trinidad and Tobago	Caribbean	no	93.5 %	1,426,000
Chile	South America	no	5.2 %	1,014,000
Panama	Central America	yes	13.4 %	583,000
Cameroon	Central Africa	yes	2.0 %	544,000
Malaysia	Southeast Asia	no	1.6 %	537,000
Sierra Leone	Western Africa	yes	4.7 %	396,000
Zimbabwe	Eastern Africa	yes	2.2 %	352,000
Zambia	Eastern Africa	yes	1.7 %	331,000
Hong Kong	East Asia	yes	3.5 %	259,000
Puerto Rico	Caribbean	yes	5.5 %	179,000
Liberia	Western Africa	yes	2.5 %	130,000
Japan	East Asia	no	0.1 %	126,000
Jersey	Northern Europe	yes	94.5 %	97,000
Namibia	Southern Africa	no	3.4 %	86,000
Virgin Islands	Caribbean	yes	74.7 %	79,000
Guam	Micronesia	yes	43.6 %	74,000
Bermuda	North America	yes	100.0 %	64,000
Cayman Islands	Caribbean	yes	90.6 %	62,000
Botswana	Southern Africa	yes	2.1 %	54,000
Cyprus	Western Asia	no	4.1 %	51,000
Saint Lucia	Caribbean	yes	20.0 %	36,000
Malta	Southern Europe	yes	6.0 %	31,000
Gibraltar	Southern Europe	yes	88.9 %	29,000
Norway	Northern Europe	no	0.5 %	27,000
Denmark	Northern Europe	no	0.3 %	18,000
Macao	East Asia	no	2.3 %	16,000
Belize	Central America	yes	3.9 %	16,000
Brunei	Southeast Asia	no	3.1 %	14,000
Rwanda	Eastern Africa	no	0.1 %	13,000
Burundi	Eastern Africa	no	0.1 %	13,000
Sao Tome and Principe	Central Africa	no	4.9 %	11,000
Northern Mariana Islands	Micronesia	yes	17.0 %	8,000
Vanuatu	Melanesia	yes	2.0 %	6,000
Sint Maarten	Caribbean	no	12.0 %	5,000
Seychelles	Eastern Africa	yes	5.1 %	5,000
Saint Martin	Caribbean	no	14.0 %	4,000
Curacao	Caribbean	no	2.9 %	4,000
Cook Islands	Polynesia	yes	42.7 %	3,000
Falkland Islands	South America	yes	89.0 %	3,000
Palau	Micronesia	yes	15.5 %	3,000
Principality of Monaco	Western Europe	no	6.5 %	2,000
Samoa	Polynesia	yes	0.6 %	1,000
American Samoa	Polynesia	yes	2.9 %	1,000
Norfolk Island	Australia/New Zealand	yes	67.6 %	1,000
Caribbean Netherlands	Caribbean	no	2.8 %	700
Niue	Polynesia	yes	24.0 %	500
Tokelau	Polynesia	yes	27.4 %	500
Nauru	Micronesia	yes	2.0 %	300

Unless otherwise described in the text, this page is about native speakers — not the total number of speakers. How many people understand or speak English as a subsequently learned language is not the subject of this page. Countries where native speakers make up only a few thousand, or even a few hundred people, or countries with a percentage well below 1% are unlikely to be listed here.