<P> English is studied most often in the European Union, and the perception of the usefulness of foreign languages among Europeans is 67 percent in favour of English ahead of 17 percent for German and 16 percent for French (as of 2012). Among some of the non-English - speaking EU countries, the following percentages of the adult population claimed to be able to converse in English in 2012: 90 percent in the Netherlands, 89 percent in Malta, 86 percent in Sweden and Denmark, 73 percent in Cyprus and Austria, 70 percent in Finland, and over 50 percent in Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Germany . In 2012, excluding native speakers, 38 percent of Europeans consider that they can speak English . </P> <P> Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world, and English is the most commonly used language in the sciences with Science Citation Index reporting as early as 1997 that 95% of its articles were written in English, even though only half of them came from authors in English - speaking countries . </P> <P> In publishing, English literature predominates considerably with 28 percent of all books published in the world (leclerc 2011) and 30 percent of web content in 2011 (down from 50 percent in 2000). </P> <P> This increasing use of the English language globally has had a large impact on many other languages, leading to language shift and even language death, and to claims of linguistic imperialism . English itself has become more open to language shift as multiple regional varieties feed back into the language as a whole . </P>

How many countries speak english as a primary language