List of countries where English is an official language.html



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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 (although usually not the main 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. although some states or regions within the U.S. have English as an official language. (See English-only movement#Current law for the full list).

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 exceptions are Madagascar and Rwanda which are former French colonies with English speaking neighbours, the Philippines, which is a former U.S. dependency and Liberia.

India's linguistic picture is complex. According to the Constitution of India, "Hindi in the Devanagari script" is the official language of the union¹ 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.

Sovereign states

Country	Continent	Population1
India	Asia	1,129,866,154
United States14	North America	300,007,997
Pakistan	Asia	162,419,946
Nigeria3	Africa	128,771,988
Philippines4	Asia	87,857,473
United Kingdom5	Europe	60,441,457
South Africa	Africa	44,344,136
Sudan	Africa	36,992,490
Kenya	Africa	33,829,590
Canada	North America	32,300,000
Uganda	Africa	27,269,482
Ghana	Africa	21,029,853
Australia14	Australia	20,800,000
Madagascar	Africa	19,448,815
Cameroon	Africa	16,380,005
Zimbabwe	Africa	12,746,990
Malawi	Africa	12,158,924
Zambia	Africa	11,261,795
Rwanda	Africa	8,440,820
Sierra Leone	Africa	6,017,643
Papua New Guinea	Oceania	5,545,268
Singapore	Asia	4,425,720
Ireland	Europe	4,130,700
New Zealand14	Oceania	4,108,561
Liberia	Africa	3,482,211
Jamaica6	North America	2,731,832
Namibia	Africa	2,030,692
Lesotho	Africa	1,867,035
Botswana	Africa	1,640,115
The Gambia	Africa	1,593,256
Mauritius	Africa	1,230,602
Swaziland	Africa	1,173,900
Trinidad and Tobago	North America	1,088,644
Fiji	Oceania	893,354
Guyana	South America	765,283
Solomon Islands	Oceania	538,032
Malta	Europe	398,534
The Bahamas	North America	301,790
Belize	Central America	279,457
Barbados	North America	279,254
Vanuatu	Oceania	205,754
Samoa	Oceania	188,540
Saint Lucia	North America	166,312
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	America	117,534
Micronesia	Oceania	108,105
Kiribati	Oceania	103,092
Tonga	Oceania	100,000
Grenada	America	89,502
Seychelles	Africa	81,188
Dominica	America	69,029
Antigua and Barbuda	America	68,722
Marshall Islands	Oceania	59,071
Saint Kitts and Nevis	America	38,958
Palau	Oceania	20,303
Nauru	Oceania	13,528
Tuvalu	Oceania	11,992

Non-sovereign entities

Entity	Continent	Population1
Hong Kong2	Asia	6,898,686
Puerto Rico3	America	3,912,054
Guam4	Oceania	108,708
U.S. Virgin Islands5	America	108,708
Jersey6	Europe	88,200
Northern Mariana Islands7	Oceania	80,801
Isle of Man8	Europe	75,049
Bermuda9	America	65,365
Guernsey10	Europe	65,228
American Samoa11	Oceania	64,869
Cayman Islands	America	44,270
Gibraltar	Europe	27,884
British Virgin Islands	America	22,643
Cook Islands	Oceania	21,388
Turks and Caicos Islands	America	20,556
Anguilla	America	13,254
Montserrat	America	9,341
Saint Helena	Africa	7,460
Falkland Islands	South America	2,967
Norfolk Island	Oceania	1,828
Christmas Island12	Oceania	1,600
Niue	Oceania	1,600
Tokelau	Oceania	1,400
Tristan da Cunha	Africa	273
Pitcairn Islands13	Oceania	67

Footnotes

^1 The population figures are based on List of countries by population

^2 Hong Kong is a former British colony (1843-1981), British-Dependent Territory (1981-1997) and special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (1997- present)

^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

References

v • d • e The English-speaking world Dark blue: Countries and territories where English is spoken natively by a significant population. Light blue: countries where English is an official language but not native. English is also one of the official languages of the European Union. Click on the coloured regions to get to the related article: