Percentage of English speakers in India
March 3, 2009 4:38 PM Subscribe
What percentage of Indians speak English?
My Googling has been woefully inadequate. I keep finding references to the Indian Census of 1991 but would like a more recent estimate.
My Googling has been woefully inadequate. I keep finding references to the Indian Census of 1991 but would like a more recent estimate.
I don't know about that, turgit dahlia: the factbook also mentions that ": English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication" which makes me suspect that quite a number of people speak it. I suspect the specific numbers shown are for first-languages, while English is a common second language for many Indians.
posted by bsdfish at 5:18 PM on March 3, 2009
posted by bsdfish at 5:18 PM on March 3, 2009
According to the 1991 census, about 90 million, so a bit under 9%.
posted by rkent at 6:09 PM on March 3, 2009
posted by rkent at 6:09 PM on March 3, 2009
I am surprised at the 10% figure from wiki. I thought it was much higher. I know a lot of Southern Indians (from high socio-economic class too) though and it is far more common to have English as one of your languages in the South.
posted by saucysault at 6:11 PM on March 3, 2009
posted by saucysault at 6:11 PM on March 3, 2009
From my experience in Hyderabad and AP, around 10% with what a native-born speaker might consider "fluent" or relatively fluent, with another huge chuck with some English, but not fluent. Enough to sell you some cakes, maybe, but not discuss literature, that kind of thing.
posted by paisley henosis at 6:28 PM on March 3, 2009
posted by paisley henosis at 6:28 PM on March 3, 2009
In my experience, anyone completing secondary education in India will speak, read and write English far better than any American (though the accent takes getting used to).
The problem, similar to most developing countries, is that the vast majority of Indians mired in poverty haven't completed their schooling, nor will they send their kids all the way through school. They start working from a very early age. Thus they aren't functionally literate in their mother tongue, nevermind able to speak English.
Who knows how accurate the 10% figure is, but I'd be very surprised if it was anything higher than 25%.
posted by randomstriker at 6:56 PM on March 3, 2009 [2 favorites]
The problem, similar to most developing countries, is that the vast majority of Indians mired in poverty haven't completed their schooling, nor will they send their kids all the way through school. They start working from a very early age. Thus they aren't functionally literate in their mother tongue, nevermind able to speak English.
Who knows how accurate the 10% figure is, but I'd be very surprised if it was anything higher than 25%.
posted by randomstriker at 6:56 PM on March 3, 2009 [2 favorites]
Depending on what the context is, you might be more interested to know many well-educated or employed Indians speak English. That percentage will be much higher, and more relevant in many contexts.
posted by yclipse at 7:18 PM on March 3, 2009
posted by yclipse at 7:18 PM on March 3, 2009
I suspect the specific numbers shown are for first-languages, while English is a common second language for many Indians.
Good point, I didn't really pay very close attention to it.
posted by turgid dahlia at 7:20 PM on March 3, 2009
Good point, I didn't really pay very close attention to it.
posted by turgid dahlia at 7:20 PM on March 3, 2009
It's a difficult question to answer, and I don't really have a clue. With that said, b1tr0t raises a common complication that I've seen dealing with Pakistanis writing in English. This is that many extremely educated people, fluent in spoken and reading English, simply cannot write coherent grammatical English. These are people for whom English is at least a second language, or the main language of instruction.
My point? There are many kinds of literacies. If Pakistan is anything to go by, the ranking would be something like this: verbal comprehension (allowing for accents) > spoken competence > reading competence > written competence. I would not be surprised if India had something similar.
(On preview and reread: mods, please delete if you find this completely irrelevant, given that the OP asked for numbers of English speakers)
posted by tavegyl at 2:06 AM on March 4, 2009
My point? There are many kinds of literacies. If Pakistan is anything to go by, the ranking would be something like this: verbal comprehension (allowing for accents) > spoken competence > reading competence > written competence. I would not be surprised if India had something similar.
(On preview and reread: mods, please delete if you find this completely irrelevant, given that the OP asked for numbers of English speakers)
posted by tavegyl at 2:06 AM on March 4, 2009
Response by poster: To clarify the question:
* I don't care whether English is a mother tongue or second language.
* I'm just interested in quantity, not quality. If somebody tells a poll or census that they know English, that's good enough to count... I don't care whether they speak/understand better or worse than someone else.
So a more up-to-date estimate similar to the 1991 census is basically what I'd like to find. I'd guess that there are more English speakers now compared to 1991, but I have no idea how many more.
delmoi: Then any American? That seems hard to believe.
heh.
posted by blue mustard at 6:39 AM on March 4, 2009
* I don't care whether English is a mother tongue or second language.
* I'm just interested in quantity, not quality. If somebody tells a poll or census that they know English, that's good enough to count... I don't care whether they speak/understand better or worse than someone else.
So a more up-to-date estimate similar to the 1991 census is basically what I'd like to find. I'd guess that there are more English speakers now compared to 1991, but I have no idea how many more.
delmoi: Then any American? That seems hard to believe.
heh.
posted by blue mustard at 6:39 AM on March 4, 2009
In my experience, anyone completing secondary education in India will speak, read and write English far better than any American (though the accent takes getting used to).
As an Indian, this made me bust a gut laughing. I'm currently in journalism school in one of the biggest cities in South India, and the number of people in my class who cannot string two coherent sentences together is nothing short of severely depressing, and the engineering colleges are far, far worse.
There are pockets of excellent English, but by an large Indians have an amazing propensity to butcher the language, in both spoken and written form. I'm in agreement with what tavegyl said; there are different kinds of literacies, with the caveat that in my experience, people, at least in India, tend to be better at spoken than written English. /digression
That 10% figure sounds about right for people with a decent amount of fluency. I can't find any data about the number of English users in India, but I'd guesstimate it as between 15 and 25 per cent, but not more. There's a huge chunk of the country where you can get by your entire life only speaking Hindi, so the penetration isn't as deep as you'd think it would be.
posted by Tamanna at 7:55 AM on March 4, 2009
As an Indian, this made me bust a gut laughing. I'm currently in journalism school in one of the biggest cities in South India, and the number of people in my class who cannot string two coherent sentences together is nothing short of severely depressing, and the engineering colleges are far, far worse.
There are pockets of excellent English, but by an large Indians have an amazing propensity to butcher the language, in both spoken and written form. I'm in agreement with what tavegyl said; there are different kinds of literacies, with the caveat that in my experience, people, at least in India, tend to be better at spoken than written English. /digression
That 10% figure sounds about right for people with a decent amount of fluency. I can't find any data about the number of English users in India, but I'd guesstimate it as between 15 and 25 per cent, but not more. There's a huge chunk of the country where you can get by your entire life only speaking Hindi, so the penetration isn't as deep as you'd think it would be.
posted by Tamanna at 7:55 AM on March 4, 2009
There are pockets of excellent English, but by an large Indians have an amazing propensity to butcher the language, in both spoken and written form.
Tamanna, I think you need to come to the U.S. and see the many born and raised Americans that can hardly speak English coherently, let alone write properly. It's pretty amazing.
posted by anniecat at 8:12 AM on March 4, 2009
Tamanna, I think you need to come to the U.S. and see the many born and raised Americans that can hardly speak English coherently, let alone write properly. It's pretty amazing.
posted by anniecat at 8:12 AM on March 4, 2009
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posted by turgid dahlia at 4:57 PM on March 3, 2009