The countries where 'most and least' people speak fluent English - list | World | News




The English language is spoken by around 380 million native speakers around the world - and it’s also the most common second language thanks to the business and travel opportunities it presents.

It counts learners from 122 countries according to Yahoo Finance - but being fluent won’t get you everywhere.

The United States and United Kingdom are often assumed to be the centres of English-speaking populations thanks to their size - and the US can count 230 million English speakers across its 50 states, making it the largest English-speaking country in the world.

But a percentage breakdown tells a different story - with only one country around the globe boasting a 100% English-speaking population, and it’s not the US or UK.

In fact, it’s British Overseas Territory Gibraltar, according to a list compiled using Census data alongside information from Crystal, Euromonitor, Eurobarometer and other local sources.

It’s followed by Ireland, with a percentage of 98.37%, then the UK, which has a fluent population of 98.3%

New Zealand is just behind it, with a rate of 97.8% and the US - a melting pot of different cultures and languages - is estimated to have a 95.5% English-speaking population.

Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark fill out the rest of the top 10 for fluency, all hovering just above or below 90%.

Meanwhile, the country with the lowest rate of fluency is reportedly China, with a staggeringly low percentage of 0.9%.

It’s followed by Brazil and Russia, both at 5%, then India at 10.5% and Mexico at 12.9%.

While these figures may be surprising, it’s worth noting that the lower-scoring countries generally don’t count English as a primary language - with second-tongue speakers not included in the statistics.



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Posted: 2024-12-08 03:48:58

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