b'4. English - The worlds second languageA very large number of people worldwide speak English as their preferred second language. The use of English as a second language is increasing all the time. For more examples of this trend, see The Economist article of 15 February 2014 entitled The English Empire: a growing number of firms worldwide are adopting English as their official language.English is the standard language of communication in aviation, the computer industry, on the internet and in most international commerce - ironically, a true lingua franca. This is a competitive advantage for the UK. The primacy of English is one key reason why international companies choose to operate in the UK.The estimated figures shown below bear this out:Table 63 Estimated number of second language speakersLanguageNumber of PeopleEnglish753,359,540French202,644,720Russian104,426,230Spanish74,242,700German56,086,000Portuguese13,406,000Source: Ethnologue: Languages of the World 2017145'