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English Speaking Countries

Name the countries of the world where more than 50% speak English or an English-based creole as a first language.
From various sources including Wikipedia and Ethnologue
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: June 8, 2023
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First submittedJune 7, 2010
Times taken310,666
Average score62.5%
Rating4.73
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%
Country
93
Ireland
92
United Kingdom
86
New Zealand
78
United States
73
Australia
54
Canada
Creole-speaking
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Grenada
Creole-speaking
Guyana
Jamaica
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Trinidad and Tobago
+1
Level 21
Jul 29, 2019
I really doubt that ten percent of Ireland do not speak English as a first language.
+34
Level 70
Jul 29, 2019
Irish Gaelic + immigrant languages I'd imagine...
+14
Level 65
Aug 5, 2019
Ireland is not the same as uk you know, english is the adopted language not the original. Though it has near completely overshadowed gaeilge (irish) not many native speakers left only a few regions
+20
Level 67
Aug 21, 2019
There are not that many people in Ireland (I think the population is a little under five million), so you only need 500,000 people to account for that 10%. Between immigrants and people whose first language is Irish, I'd think it's a very reasonable number to attain.
+1
Level 74
Aug 21, 2019
It's about 6,600,000.
+15
Level 60
Aug 21, 2019
Lilylee - 4.8m in the Republic of Ireland, 6.6m on the island of Ireland
+7
Level 81
Aug 21, 2019
In the 1960s it was under 3 million. Now almost 5 million. In 1841 it was 8 million.
+3
Level 58
Aug 9, 2023
Taking this quiz in 2023, the number has been updated to 93%. Most of the remaining 7% would be explained by immigration, with hundreds of thousands of first-generation long-term residents or citizens whose first language is Polish, Lithuanian, (Brazilian) Portuguese, etc. The number of first-language (from childhood) speakers of Irish is tiny, and claims that 2% of the population have Irish as a first language should be treated with a degree of scepticism.
+8
Level 37
Aug 21, 2019
The majority of this quiz is in the Caribbean:)
+61
Level 69
May 29, 2020
No, I think it's on my computer.
+16
Level 43
Aug 21, 2019
I really thought more African countries were English speaking
+15
Level 70
Aug 21, 2019
Not many where it is spoken as a first language, but quite a lot where it is used as a lingua franca or one of many official languages.
+3
Level 54
Aug 26, 2021
Many use it as an official language for the simple reason that SO many Indigenous languages exist that they just need a common de jure tongue for governance even though very few people speak it day to day.
+6
Level 47
Aug 21, 2019
Guyana and Belize are in the heart of Latin America. But glad I knew guys in the Army from those places. They were British enclaves in mainland Latin America. A lot of people don't know that.
+3
Level 57
Aug 21, 2019
Where is Malta?
+57
Level 81
Aug 21, 2019
In the Mediterranean.
+18
Level 73
Sep 23, 2019
Just above Africa.
+2
Level 88
Nov 16, 2019
Milk balls?
+6
Level 54
Aug 26, 2021
Most people speak Maltese as their mother tongue and know English or Italian as a second language.
+6
Level 44
Apr 17, 2022
And call them Maltesers.
+2
Level 33
Aug 21, 2019
Do they not Speak english in South Africa? I think they do
+18
Level 81
Aug 21, 2019
First language. Afrikaans in South Africa and many native ethnic languages. Try the other quiz mentioned, "English Speaking Countries" as opposed to first language on this quiz.
+2
Level 71
May 14, 2021
I do not believe that Afrikaans is South Africa's first language.
+2
Level 76
Dec 17, 2021
I thought Zulu was the most common
+2
Level 46
Nov 14, 2022
Zulu is the most common native language, then xhosa, then afrikaans and english in fourth place.
+5
Level 57
Aug 21, 2019
I kept looking for other Caribbean countries when I fdound out that I missed Australia and New Zealand.
+3
Level 67
Aug 21, 2019
Me too except I only overlooked Australia. Got so hooked up on trying to remember all the Caribbean islands
+1
Level 15
Nov 2, 2019
Same here. I thought for sure the one I'd missed would be a Caribbean island or a singular African country that made it on here. But nope. Australia. I guess when I typed in New Zealand I assumed I'd already done Australia, but apparently not.
+2
Level 27
Sep 22, 2019
I did quite well on the Caribbean countries, missing only Grenada--and I considered it, but then assumed it was more likely Spanish. But I forgot Ireland!!! So BAD of me, especially considering I'm of partial Irish heritage.
+3
Level 20
Nov 3, 2019
I thought that english was the official langauge of Nigeria,

and most countries in Europe speak english as a 2nd language, I don't know anyone who doesn't speak english

+3
Level 65
Nov 14, 2019
At home??
+3
Level 43
Nov 26, 2021
But not as a first language.
+1
Level 55
Nov 12, 2019
For my own curiosity, why are some of the percentage backrounds red and some white?
+5
Level 84
Nov 14, 2019
"Includes speakers of English creoles (marked in red)"
+5
Level 40
Nov 24, 2019
i. forgot. canada.
+1
Level 37
Feb 20, 2020
I was focusing on the Caribbean countries that I didn't know and forgot Ireland and Canada. *facepalm*
+2
Level 61
Mar 17, 2020
Don't they speak English in all the former British colonies in Africa?

i.e. Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, etc..

+6
Level 65
May 5, 2020
They do a lot in those countrires, at the top though it states;

"Name the countries where more than 50% speak English as a first language."

+1
Level 64
Mar 19, 2020
I'm surprised that only 30 percent had Guyana. It used to be called British Guyana just like French Guyana.
+2
Level 69
May 29, 2020
It's French Guiana, but I wonder why its called that. Is it French for Guyana?
+2
Level 52
Jun 12, 2022
no, in French it is called "Guyane"
+1
Level 49
May 25, 2020
malta?
+2
Level ∞
Jun 8, 2023
Only 10.6% of Maltese people speak English as a first language according to Wikipedia, although another 77.7% can speak it as an additional language.
+3
Level 49
Jun 15, 2020
And what about the island of Dominica? I'll do some research, but when I was there most folks spoke English.
+4
Level 43
Nov 26, 2021
Not really, actually. While English is the official language there, most of the population speak a form of French Creole as their first language. This is also the case with St. Lucia, another Caribbean country where English is also the official language.
+1
Level 90
Aug 27, 2020
So close to forgetting Canada (wow)
+1
Level 31
Sep 22, 2020
forgot about st vincent and the grenadines!!!
+1
Level 57
Oct 24, 2020
This quiz would look quite different with just fluent speakers, not native language. I’d say it’d be a lot longer, especially in Europe and Africa.
+3
Level 57
Nov 30, 2020
India as well.
+2
Level 16
Jan 1, 2021
if you know the Caribbean this should be easy for you
+3
Level 64
Feb 19, 2021
Am I the only one who finds it odd that the percentage of Canadians who speak English as a first language is given as 57%? I know that French is the predominant language in Québec, and that there's a large immigrant population, but 57% seems very low.
+7
Level 59
Jun 28, 2021
Imo it's not that surprising,

57% of the country speaks English

Around 21% speaks French

That adds up to about 78%

~22% of the Canadian population is made up of immigrants... which would add up to basically equal 100%

Its true that there are probably many English and French speaking immigrants. But on the other hand, many children (of immigrants, or other) learn their parents' or family's language before they learn English or French, making it their first language.

I don't know if the two of those cancel each other out, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

Please forgive me if any of this doesn't make sense or the math doesn't add up... I just got my wisdom teeth out and I still have the anaesthetic in my system lol

+2
Level 54
Aug 26, 2021
Indigenous languages as well as languages spoken by immigrants make up something like 20% which leaves another 23% for French which I think is accurate so 57% seems feasible.
+1
Level ∞
Jun 8, 2023
54% now.
+2
Level 51
Mar 1, 2021
I thought Malta was a completely English speaking nation?
+11
Level 75
Mar 14, 2021
In Malta almost everybody speaks English as a second language, but the main first language is Maltese and the national dish is Maltesers.
+1
Level 57
Mar 22, 2021
I got em all except... Canada.. How can I skip Canada while even guessing Mexico? That's dumb.
+1
Level 54
Aug 26, 2021
In all fairness it is at the bottom of the list. Roughly half of Canada has another language as their mother tongue.
+3
Level 36
Mar 28, 2021
Why you didn't put India? The language English is important for India.
+4
Level 79
May 14, 2021
The quiz looks for countries with a majority of people speaking it as a first language.
+2
Level 22
Apr 28, 2021
English is also spoken in St Lucia,Botswana,Namibia,and Zambia
+3
Level 43
Nov 26, 2021
But not a majority as a first language in those countries.
+2
Level 22
Apr 28, 2021
It is also spoken in South Africa
+4
Level 79
May 14, 2021
Less than a majority of people there speak it as a first language
+1
Level 54
Aug 26, 2021
57% is the baseline for this list. Nowhere near that fraction of South Africans speak English as their first language.
+2
Level ∞
Jun 8, 2023
English is the fourth-most common first language in South Africa after Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans.
+1
Level 43
Apr 29, 2021
You forgot India.
+2
Level ∞
Jun 8, 2023
India has almost no native English speakers. Just 0.02%.
+1
Level 22
May 29, 2021
India should be in the list.
+6
Level 43
Nov 26, 2021
English is not widely used as the first language there.
+1
Level 25
Jun 3, 2021
Barbados? Seriously?
+1
Level 43
Nov 26, 2021
Why? English is the official language there and Bajan Creole, an English-based creole, is the native language of most of the population.
+1
Level 25
Jun 3, 2021
Carribean?
+1
Level 43
Nov 26, 2021
Several Caribbean countries are there. By the way, it's "Caribbean", not "Carribean".
+1
Level 60
Aug 9, 2023
I think they're questioning why the Caribbean is so prevalent, not questioning why it's not an answer.
+2
Level 22
Jul 4, 2021
Also Fiji and Mauritius
+2
Level ∞
Jun 8, 2023
Not even close. Even counting speakers of English as a second-language it's below 20%.
+1
Level 48
Dec 31, 2021
As soon as I remembered the Caribbean countries, it was easy, I just typed them all to see what works
+1
Level 38
Jan 6, 2022
The Philippines: Am i a joke to you?
+3
Level 70
Jan 8, 2022
I doubt the Philippines have that many native English speakers. The relevant Wikipedia page doesn't even list English as part of natively spoken languages.
+2
Level ∞
Jun 8, 2023
Only 0.04% of Filipinos speak English as a native language.
+5
Level 82
Feb 20, 2022
I suspect Singapore will land on this list in the next few years. Wikipedia (quoting Statistics Singapore) has English as the first language of 48.3% of Singaporeans, and it's growing rapidly: in 1990 that figure was only 18.8%. English is certainly the dominant language of Singapore, not only does it have a plurality of first-language speakers (having overtaken Mandarin in the last decade), but it is the lingua franca amongst Singaporeans generally, with the overwhelmingly majority of Singaporeans being able to speak it.
+2
Level ∞
Jun 8, 2023
Yes it will. As of 2020, Singapore is 48.3% native English speakers. So probably in the next decade.
+1
Level 37
Aug 4, 2023
Singapore speaks brilliant English.
+1
Level 26
Feb 25, 2022
people get UK more than Australia >:
+3
Level 76
Jul 2, 2022
I mean, it is the country where English came from in the first place.
+1
Level 32
Jun 28, 2022
Where's South Africa?
+3
Level 76
Jul 2, 2022
At the southern tip of Africa.

(Though to answer the question you're actually asking, South Africa isn't on this quiz because less than 10% of its population speak English as a first language, and the cutoff for this quiz is 50%.)

+1
Level 50
Feb 20, 2023
Got 6/16!!

So proud of myself!

+4
Level 32
Apr 17, 2023
Man i missed US, I thought it was spanish speaking country :(
+1
Level 67
Aug 9, 2023
Ah yes
+2
Level 37
Aug 4, 2023
You forgot about these countries :

Singapore

South Africa

Nigeria

+1
Level 60
Aug 10, 2023
None of those have 50% of their population that are first-language English speakers, but Singapore is close.
+1
Level 67
Aug 9, 2023
Missed Guyana and Jamaica
+1
Level 20
Aug 9, 2023
Yes, Singapore speaks English as a first language
+1
Level 60
Aug 9, 2023
It's just under 49%. The cutoff is 50%.
+2
Level 88
Aug 9, 2023
As an Irishman, it saddens me that that the percentage of English first language speakers is higher even than the UK.
+1
Level 85
Aug 9, 2023
How do you distinguish between creole, dialect and proper English? Spend some time in a Newfoundland outport and you'll wonder why that's called English and Jamaican patois is called creole. Since English has plenty of accents or dialects some which are difficult for others to understand, why pick on the Caribbeans as creole and not dialects.
+2
Level 72
Jan 16, 2024
The line between dialect and language is incredibly blurred, with no set definition. As for a creole, it's a mixture of languages.
+1
Level 83
Feb 10, 2024
More specifically, Creoles are usually lexified by a coloniser language (English, French, Spanish etc), but their underlying grammar is claimed to be from West African language families. And the Creoles sprang up in very specific sets of circumstances (i.e. slavery) where groups of enslaved people who couldn't understand each other were often deliberately put together. Creoles were then the result of the next generation naturally reformulating communication attempts and pidgins into a grammatical system.

Dialects on the other hand may have influences from other languages or dialects, but form and develop over a much longer time scale, and aren't associated with critical situations like enslavement, and are usually much more grammatically similar to other dialects of the same 'parent' language.

+1
Level 74
Feb 22, 2024
Utter disappointment to see Ireland at the top of that list