What percentage of people in India speak English?

India now claims to be the world's second-largest English-speaking country. The most reliable estimate is around 10% of its population or 125 million people, second only to the US and expected to quadruple in the next decade. read more

Everyone quotes a figure of about 10 percent. But the people who speak, read and write it well enough to be considered acceptable in England and USA are probably only about 2 percent of the population. The rest ( 8 %) can merely understand simple English and speak broken English with an amazing variety of accents. read more

Curiously, many states in India have attempted to make English the medium of instruction for all schools in an attempt to assuage the demands of the poor; however, the shortage of teachers who can even speak English is surreal. read more

English native speakers amount to 13% of the whole Union population, while the percentage of people that speak English"well enough in order to be able to have a conversation", either as first (32%), second (11%) or third (3%) foreign language, was 38%. read more