English-Speaking Countries Quiz

Which countries count?

A country counts when the language is an official national language: named in its constitution or laws (de jure), or, where the law names none, the language its national government works in (de facto). A language that is widely spoken but not official does not count, nor does one that is official only in a region. We use the same 197 countries as our other quizzes: the 193 UN members, Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan. Territories such as Puerto Rico are grey on the map.

English has about 1.5 billion speakers, but fewer than 400 million of them speak it as their first language.

Borderline cases

• United States (counted): There was no official language until an executive order in 2025 designated English; it was the language of government in practice long before.
• United Kingdom and Australia (counted): No law makes English official, but it is the language of government in practice.
• India (counted): English is an official language of the central government, alongside Hindi.
• Philippines (counted): English and Filipino are both official under the 1987 constitution.
• Malaysia (not counted): English is widely used, but it stopped being an official language in 1967; Malay is the only one.
• Sri Lanka (not counted): The constitution calls English a link language, but Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages.
• Israel (not counted): English is widely spoken but not official.
• Ethiopia (not counted): English is used in secondary and higher education, but the federal working languages are Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya, Somali and Afar.
• Eritrea (counted): No language is official in law; English is one of the three working languages of government.
• Mauritius (counted): The constitution names no official language, but English is the language of government and parliament.
• Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Hong Kong and other territories (counted): English is official, but they are not countries, so they are grey on the map or part of their country.

All 59 countries where English is official

Europe (3): Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom

Africa (24): Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Eritrea, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Asia (4): India, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore

North America (13): Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, United States

South America (1): Guyana

Oceania (14): Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu

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