English speaking population

English language skills are critical to serving outsourcing clients in North America and Western Europe. Summarized below are percentages of national populations that speak English.

The definitions and sources vary across countries and thus should only be used for directional guidance. Also, the range of estimates for a specific country can be large. The extreme example is China where estimates of English "speakers" can be as low as 10 million while other sources estimate the number of English "users" at several hundred million. While not as drastic, estimates vary for other large outsourcing destinations such as India and the Philippines.