How many people speak English in the contemporary world?

How many people speak English in the contemporary world?Modern English is sometimes spoken of as the 20th century Latin. Today it is the language of international communication in science, commerce, tourism and culture. According to the newest statistics it is the native language for 350 million people (236 mln in the US, ) and a second language for another 400 million. More than 80 per cent of the information accumulated in the computer systems all over the world is in English.
Why is English sometimes spoken of as the "20th century Latin"?Modern English is sometimes spoken of as the 20th century Latin. Today it is the language of international communication in science, commerce, tourism and culture.Richard Malcaster, an English scholar, used to complain in 1582: “English is unimportant. It is spoken only on our island, and even not on the whole of it…” He could not foresee that in a quarter of a century English immigrants would found their colony in Virginia and it would be the first step in the triumphant march of the English language through the world.
In how many countries is English the official language?Nowadays English is spoken as a native tongue in 12 countries and is used as the official language in about 50 countries.
What is the genealogical classification of languages?To understand the place of the English language among the other languages of the world it is important to discuss its genealogical relations. The genealogical approach allows to divide languages into “families”, each family containing only languages that are supposed to have originated from one proto-language
Name the groups of the Indo-European family of languages.It is hard to believe, but very long ago there existed some Proto-Indo-European language of which have originated such languages as Greek, Latin, English, Russian, French and many other languages the genetic relations of which are difficult to suspect if you do not have special linguistic education. Big families of languages are divided into groups. Finally, large groups are divided into subgroups.