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Central America: 288,000 Yes (English-based creole language) Botswana [4] BWA Africa: 1,882,000 Yes Burundi [5] BDI Africa 10,114,505 No Cameroon [2] CMR Africa 22,534,532 No (co-official with French, but only spoken primarily in the Northwest and Southwest of the country) Canada: CAN North America: 38,048,738
The British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the Earth's land surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries. British English and North American English, the two major varieties of the language, are together spoken by 400 million people. The total number of English speakers worldwide may exceed one ...
As of 2016, 400 million people spoke English as their first language, and 1.1 billion spoke it as a secondary language. [70] English is the largest language by number of speakers. English is spoken by communities on every continent and on islands in all the major oceans. [71]
The European Union is a supranational union composed of 27 member states. The total English-speaking population of the European Union and the United Kingdom combined (2012) is 256,876,220 [1] (out of a total population of 500,000,000, [2] i.e. 51%) including 65,478,252 native speakers and 191,397,968 non-native speakers, and would be ranked 2nd if it were included.
English has become increasingly common; when the United States was founded, just 40% of Americans spoke English. [72] [better source needed]. In 2002, 87% of Americans spoke English as their first language. [73] [74] It serves as the de facto national language, the language in which government business is carried out. According to the U.S ...
Colonization efforts began in the late 16th century with failed attempts by England to establish permanent colonies in the North. The first of the permanent English colony in the Americas was established in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Colonies were established in North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, [b] is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. [4] English is the most widely spoken language in the United States.
North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, [ 2 ] plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar of U.S. English and Canadian English , linguists often group the two together.