By Ahmad Muto
The World Population Review 2023 on English Speaking Countries has placed Uganda ahead of all its East African neighbours, and only ranking second to Nigeria on the continent.
Nigeria topped the list with 111 million of its 213 million people being fluent English speakers.
Then Uganda ranked second with 29 million of its 45 million people as fluent English speakers.
Meanwhile, South Africa is host to sixteen million English speakers of its 60 million people while central African country of Cameroon boasts 9.8 million of its 28 million people.
Kenya and Tanzania appear nowhere on the list. However, the former receives a mention in the breakdown of ‘The three circles of English’ model developed in the 1980s.
The inner circle (smallest) includes countries where English is the native language of the majority population – US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.
The Outer circle is where Kenya features alongside India, Nigeria, Jamaica, Bangladesh, Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Singapore.
The Expanding circle is the largest for countries where English has no historic or cultural role – Russia, China, Japan, Brazil.
