English is the most spoken language in the world with 1.3 billion speakers spread over 67 sovereign nations.
According to the English-Speaking Countries 2023 report by World Population Review, Uganda was ranked second in Africa.
Notably, in the report, Kenya did not feature in the continent’s top three highest English-speaking countries.
South Africa was the only country in Africa that was given an inner circle spot in the ranking process.
“Inner Circle includes countries in which English is the native language of the majority of the population: mainly the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and much of Canada,” the report stated.
According to World Population Review, member nations of the inner circle are referred to as norm providing circle where native speakers continue to evolve the language’s rules and usage.
Other English-speaking countries in Africa are classified under the outer circle with small communities of native English speakers and widespread use of English as a second language.
In the outer circle, Nigeria led with 111 million of its population identified as being fluent in English.
Nigeria topped the list of English speakers in Africa courtesy of its huge population of 213 million people.
Uganda is second in ranking with 29 million people proficient in English against a population of 45 million.
Cameroon has a population of 27 million people and 9.8 million people are fluent in the English language.
While Kenya missed on the World Population Review ranking, according to Milestone Localization, a professional translation service, up to 50 per cent of Kenya’s population of 53 million people can speak English. Kenyans.co
