Geographical distribution

Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language.[21] English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.[22][23] However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)".[6][24] Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined.[25][26] There are some who claim that non-native speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1.[27]

The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are, in descending order: United States (215 million),[28] United Kingdom (61 million),[29] Canada (18.2 million),[30] Australia (15.5 million),[31] Ireland (3.8 million),[29] South Africa (3.7 million),[32] and New Zealand (3.0-3.7 million).[33] Countries such as Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from an English-based creole to a more standard version of English. Of those nations where English is spoken as a second language, India has the most such speakers ('Indian English') and linguistics professor David Crystal claims that, combining native and non-native speakers, India now has more people who speak or understand English than any other country in the world.[34] Following India is the People's Republic of China.[35]