Hello.
7.6% refers to people who speak English as their first language
That's not true. The statistics table I was referring to, says:
estimates include both "mother-tongue" and "nonmother-tongue" speakers. It's true that English is the language of commerce, industry and science. Because computers and media rely on those, you get a mistaken image of language use. 68.3% of web pages are in English apparently (*). But so what? Are you to believe that 2 out of 3 people speak English? How are web pages or software reflective of say rural population?
But I don’t deny that English is a widely used method of communication. Just, let’s not forget that, proportionally, it’s accessible to very few. OK, that's no longer a mIRC discussion...
Regards.
(*) According to
http://www.clickz.com/stats/big_picture/demographics/article.php/5901_408521