How many people speak English worldwide?
World medium Data from 2024
Guess before you scroll — the answer is below
The answer
1,500,000,000 people
Roughly 1.5B.
About 1.5 billion people speak English, but only around 380 million of them are native speakers. Roughly three quarters of English speakers learned it as a second language, which makes it the first language in history where non-natives outnumber natives four to one.
Where this number comes from
| Source | Ethnologue |
|---|---|
| Figure refers to | 2024 |
| Last checked | |
| Unit | people |
Numbers move. If this one has drifted from its source, let us know.
Think you can do better?
Five fresh questions every day. No account needed.