<P> English is the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin and Spanish . </P> <P> Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly, from 470 million to more than 1 billion . David Crystal calculates that, as of 2003, non-native speakers outnumbered native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1 . When combining native and non-native speakers, English is the most widely spoken language worldwide . </P> <P> Besides the major varieties of English, such as American English, British English, Canadian English, Australian English, Irish English, New Zealand English and their sub-varieties, countries such as South Africa, India, the Philippines, Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from English - based creole languages to Standard English . </P> <P> There are six large countries with a majority of native English speakers that are sometimes grouped under the term Anglosphere . In numbers of English speakers they are: the United States (at least 231 million), the United Kingdom (60 million), Canada (at least 20 million), Australia (at least 17 million),, Ireland (4.2 million) and New Zealand (3.8 million). </P>

How many countries use english language in the world