Rath on 01 June 2008
| That Guy said: The de-facto usage is using the term "Zee" since there are 300 million Americans and what, 50 million english? |
Heres a list of total speakers of English in the top 8 largest English speaking communities. Keep in mind that many millions of people speak English in other countries. Almost everyone apart from the Americans use 'Zed'
Countries in order of total speakers
Rank  | Country | Total | Percent of population | First language | As an additional language | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 251,388,301 | 83% | 215,423,557 | 35,964,744 | Source: US Census 2006: Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2006, Table 1. Figure for second language speakers are respondents who reported they do not speak English at home but know it "very well" or "well". Note: figures are for population age 5 and older |
| 2 | India | 90,000,000 | 8% | 178,598 | 65,000,000 second language speakers. 25,000,000 third language speakers | Figures include both those who speak English as a second language and those who speak it as a third language. 1991 figures.[25][26] The figures include English speakers, but not English users.[27] |
| 3 | Nigeria | 79,000,000 | 53% | 4,000,000 | >75,000,000 | Figures are for speakers of Nigerian Pidgin, an English-based pidgin or creole. Ihemere gives a range of roughly 3 to 5 million native speakers; the midpoint of the range is used in the table. Ihemere, Kelechukwu Uchechukwu. 2006. "A Basic Description and Analytic Treatment of Noun Clauses in Nigerian Pidgin." Nordic Journal of African Studies 15(3): 296–313. |
| 4 | United Kingdom | 59,600,000 | 98% | 58,100,000 | 1,500,000 | Source: Crystal (2005), p. 109. |
| 5 | Philippines | 45,900,000 | 52% | 27,000 | 42,500,000 | Total speakers: Census 2000, text above Figure 7. 63.71% of the 66.7 million people aged 5 years or more could speak English. Native speakers: Census 1995, as quoted by Andrew Gonzalez in The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 19 (5&6), 487-525. (1998) |
| 6 | Germany | 36,000,000 | 44% | 272,504 | 36,000,000 | Native speakers: Statistisches Bundesamt (cited here). Non-native speakers: 2006 Eurobarometer survey. Does not include foreign military personnel based in Germany. |
| 7 | Canada | 25,246,220 | 76% | 17,694,830 | 7,551,390 | Source: 2001 Census - Knowledge of Official Languages and Mother Tongue. The native speakers figure comprises 122,660 people with both French and English as a mother tongue, plus 17,572,170 people with English and not French as a mother tongue. |
| 8 | Australia | 18,172,989 | 92% | 15,581,329 | 2,591,660 | Source: 2006 Census. [2] The figure shown in the first language English speakers column is actually the number of Australian residents who speak only English at home. The additional language column shows the number of other residents who claim to speak English "well" or "very well". Another 5% of residents did not state their home language or English proficiency.
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