English is the third most spoken native language in the world, behind only Mandarin (Chinese) and Spanish, and is spoken by more people overall than any other language in the world. English gained traction around the world during the 17th century—largely due to the influence of the British Empire and the United States —and has become the leading language of international …

The English language has approximately 400 million native speakers worldwide, trailing only Mandarin and Spanish. However, it is also the single most popular second language. As a result, when native and non-native English speakers are combined, it is recognized as the single most widely-spoken global language.

The English-speaking World, Volume 1 Full view - 1919. The English-speaking World, Volume 2 Snippet view - 1920. The English-speaking World, Volumes 40-41 Snippet view - 1958.