List of countries where English is an official language

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The following is a list of sovereign states and territories where English is an official language, in order of population. Several of these nations, like India, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and the Philippines, use English as an official language but not the sole official language.

This list also includes countries where English is the dominant language, but does not have official status. In Australia, English is spoken by the vast majority of the population and is the only language used in government institutions, yet Australia does not have an official language. This is the same in the U.S. and the UK, although some states or regions within the UK and the U.S. have English as an official language.

The status of English as a country's official language does not necessarily correlate with the number of English-speakers in that country. India, for example, with a population of 1.1 billion, has fewer than 200,000 native speakers of English and approximately 100 million second-language English speakers (who form less than 10% of its population). Nigeria on the other hand, has a small percentage of Standard English second-language speakers; however, more than 60% of its population speaks Nigerian Pidgin English, which although not a dialect of English, does contain many English words and possesses an English-like grammatical structure.

Map of nations using English as an official language or as the predominant non-official language.

Almost all of these countries are current or former colonies or dependencies of the UK (see also British Empire). The notable exception is Madagascar, which is a former French colony with English speaking neighbors.

India's linguistic picture is complex. According to the Constitution of India, "Hindi in the Devanagari script" is the official language of the union^[1] and English the 'subsidiary official language';^[2] however, English is mandated for the authoritative texts of all federal laws and Supreme Court decisions, and (along with Hindi) is one of the two languages of the Indian Parliament. See Official languages of India.

These nations total 2.135 billion people, cover 15,583,152 square miles, and have a combined GDP of about 18 trillion US dollars.

[edit] Sovereign states

Rank	Country	Continent	Population1
1	India	Asia	1,129,866,154
2	United States15	North America	300,007,997
3	Pakistan	Asia	162,419,946
4	Nigeria	Africa	128,771,988
5	Philippines[3]	Asia	87,857,473
6	United Kingdom[4]	Europe	60,441,457
7	South Africa	Africa	44,344,136
8	Sudan	Africa	36,992,490
9	Kenya	Africa	33,829,590
10	Canada	North America	32,300,000
11	Uganda	Africa	27,269,482
12	Ghana	Africa	21,029,853
13	Australia15	Oceania	20,800,000
14	Madagascar	Africa	19,448,815
15	Cameroon	Africa	16,380,005
16	Zimbabwe	Africa	12,746,990
17	Malawi	Africa	12,158,924
18	Zambia	Africa	11,261,795
19	Rwanda	Africa	8,440,820
20	Sierra Leone	Africa	6,017,643
21	Papua New Guinea	Oceania	5,545,268
22	Singapore	Asia	4,425,720
23	Ireland	Europe	4,130,700
24	New Zealand15	Oceania	4,108,561
25	Liberia	Africa	3,482,211
26	Jamaica[5]	North America	2,731,832
27	Namibia	Africa	2,030,692
29	Lesotho	Africa	1,867,035
30	Botswana	Africa	1,640,115
31	The Gambia	Africa	1,593,256
32	Mauritius	Africa	1,230,602
33	Swaziland	Africa	1,173,900
34	Trinidad and Tobago	America	1,088,644
35	Fiji	Oceania	893,354
36	Guyana	South America	765,283
37	Solomon Islands	Oceania	538,032
38	Malta	Europe	398,534
39	The Bahamas	America	301,790
40	Belize	Central America	279,457
41	Barbados	America	279,254
42	Vanuatu	Oceania	205,754
43	Saint Lucia	America	166,312
44	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	America	117,534
45	Micronesia	Oceania	108,105
46	Kiribati	Oceania	103,092
47	Grenada	America	89,502
48	Seychelles	Africa	81,188
49	Dominica	America	69,029
50	Antigua and Barbuda	America	68,722
51	Marshall Islands	Oceania	59,071
52	Saint Kitts and Nevis	America	38,958
53	Palau	Oceania	20,303
54	Nauru	Oceania	13,528

[edit] Non-sovereign entities

Rank	Entity	Continent	Population1
1	Hong Kong 2	Asia	6,898,686
2	Puerto Rico 3	America	3,912,054
3	Guam 4	Oceania	108,708
4	U.S. Virgin Islands 5	America	108,708
5	Jersey 6	Europe	88,200
6	Northern Mariana Islands 7	Oceania	80,801
7	Isle of Man 8	Europe	75,049
8	Bermuda 9	America	65,365
9	Guernsey 10	Europe	65,228
10	American Samoa 11	Oceania	64,869
11	Cayman Islands	America	44,270
12	Gibraltar	Europe	27,884
13	British Virgin Islands	America	22,643
14	Cook Islands	Oceania	21,388
15	Turks and Caicos Islands	America	20,556
16	Anguilla	America	13,254
17	Montserrat	America	9,341
18	Saint Helena	Africa	7,460
19	Falkland Islands	South America	2,967
20	Norfolk Island	Oceania	1,828
21	Christmas Island 12	Oceania	1,600
22	Niue	Oceania	1,600
23	Tokelau	Oceania	1,400
24	Tristan da Cunha	Africa	273
25	Pitcairn Islands 13	Oceania	67

[edit] See also

• List of countries by English-speaking population
• Anglosphere
• Anglophone

v • d • e The Anglosphere Dark blue: Countries and territories where English is the official, de facto official or primary national language. Light blue: countries (in the case of Quebec: province) where English is an official language but not primary. English is also one of the official languages of the European Union. Click on the coloured regions to get to the related article:

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ The population figures are based on List of countries by population.
2. ^ Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China
3. ^ Puerto Rico is, historically and geographically, connected to the Spanish-speaking Caribbean; Spanish is the main language of the majority of Puerto Ricans. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated United States territory referred to as a "Commonwealth"
4. ^ Guam is an organized unincorporated territory of the United States
5. ^ The US Virgin Islands is an insular area of the United States
6. ^ Jersey is a British Crown dependency
7. ^ The Northern Mariana Islands is a commonwealth in political union with the United States
8. ^ Isle of Man is a British Crown dependency
9. ^ Bermuda is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom
10. ^ Guernsey is a British Crown dependency
11. ^ American Samoa is an unincorporated U.S. territory
12. ^ Christmas Island is an external territory of Australia
13. ^ Pitcairn Islands is a British overseas territory
14. ^ Widely spoken but not an official language

[edit] References