19 How many speakers of English are there in the world?

This seemingly easy question is actually a lot more complicated than one would think. I’ve read an article which basically said there is no was we can say how many speakers there are. Data is usually gathered in census forms and what is meant by ’speaking a language’ differs from country to country. Also, such forms don’t distinguish between listening, speaking, reading or writing skills. Furthermore, how fluent do you have to be to count as a ’speaker’ of a language? At what point in the learning curve does one dare to say: ’I speak English’? So, can we establish any facts about a language? Well, facts are demonstrable, verifiable and unarguable. Unfortunately, with language thare are hardly any such facts. All we can do is guess.