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I'm not sure we can accurately gauge this number. A large part of the internet and usage of technology (especially programming) are all in English. I would be s

I'm not sure we can accurately gauge this number. A large part of the internet and usage of technology (especially programming) are all in English. I would be shocked if a majority of the people in the world didn't know at least some English and if more people could speak English. Most of these statistics are always the primary language of the people. But I don't think that's a clear indication on how many can actually speak with each different language.

yoo1I 10y ago
The relevant wikipedia page [0] puts it thusly: > For example, English has about 340 million native speakers but, depending on the criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as 2 billion speakers. This statistic is based on research[1] from 2008 which summarizes it's abstract with this sentence:; > In short, we have moved in 25 years from a fifth to a quarter to a third of the world's population being speakers of English. So, not quite the majority. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_num... [1] http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1742576&fileId=S0266078408000023 http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPag...
- danieldk 10y ago
  Moreover, I am not sure how accurate these numbers are in practice. E.g. I live in Germany. Most Germans (in West-Germany) had English in high school. So, according to these statistics they are probably part of the 2 billion. Since I am not a native speaker of German, I sometimes try to start a conversation in English. For the far majority speaking English is difficult or they don't speak English at all, including people with a higher education (e.g. GPs). I can fully understand, since I had five years of German in high school, but since I had rarely practiced since, I had similar difficulties speaking German.
  - morgante 10y ago
    They might not be fluent, but most Germans could have a basic conversation in English. English is the global language. A Korean pilot working for a German carrier landing a plane in Costa Rica will be speaking English.

yoo1I 10y ago

The relevant wikipedia page [0] puts it thusly: > For example, English has about 340 million native speakers but, depending on the criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as 2 billion speakers. This statistic is based on research[1] from 2008 which summarizes it's abstract with this sentence:; > In short, we have moved in 25 years from a fifth to a quarter to a third of the world's population being speakers of English. So, not quite the majority. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_num... [1] http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1742576&fileId=S0266078408000023 http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPag...

danieldk 10y ago
Moreover, I am not sure how accurate these numbers are in practice. E.g. I live in Germany. Most Germans (in West-Germany) had English in high school. So, according to these statistics they are probably part of the 2 billion. Since I am not a native speaker of German, I sometimes try to start a conversation in English. For the far majority speaking English is difficult or they don't speak English at all, including people with a higher education (e.g. GPs). I can fully understand, since I had five years of German in high school, but since I had rarely practiced since, I had similar difficulties speaking German.
- morgante 10y ago
  They might not be fluent, but most Germans could have a basic conversation in English. English is the global language. A Korean pilot working for a German carrier landing a plane in Costa Rica will be speaking English.