[ccmay]

English: 340 million first language; 515 million total speakers

I don't think so. There are 300 million people in the US alone, of whom 90%+ speak English at home. Britain has over 50 million, and the rest of the Anglosphere must have at least another 50-100 million primary English speakers.

And the 515 million total speakers is way too low also. 515-300=215. There are more than 215 million people in India alone who speak English as their second language. A billion total speakers of English is more like it.

-ccm

[Northern Alliance]

Wikipedia puts the native English speaker figure at 380 million.

This is an interesting site listing languages used on the Internet. It puts the total English speakers worldwide (not just on the 'net) at 1,125,664,397. Now some of those will have French, etc., as a first, second, or third language as well.

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

What!? Do you mean that Wikipedia could be wrong?!!

{/sarc}

Actually, I wondered about the numbers myself -- but thought that they'd at least make my point. The more people who speak a language, the more advantages there are to learning it. That's not necessarily a reflection on the intrinsic quality of one language compared to another -- just the network effects. On this score, English wins, and French loses.

[Donald Meaker]

Don't forget India, with some 600 local dialects, uses English as its language of business.