Editing Esperanto (section)

==== Number of speakers ====
An estimate of the number of Esperanto speakers was made by [[Sidney S. Culbert]], a retired [[psychology]] professor at the [[University of Washington]] and a longtime [[List of Esperanto speakers|Esperantist]], who tracked down and tested Esperanto speakers in sample areas in dozens of countries over a period of twenty years. Culbert concluded that between one and two million people speak Esperanto at [[ILR scale|Foreign Service Level 3]], "professionally proficient" (able to communicate moderately complex ideas without hesitation, and to follow speeches, radio broadcasts, etc.).<ref name=Culbert>Culbert, Sidney S. [http://www.panix.com/~dwolff/docs/ Three letters about his method for estimating the number of Esperanto speakers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514105444/http://www.panix.com/~dwolff/docs/ |date=May 14, 2011 }}, scanned and HTMLized by David Wolff</ref> Culbert's estimate was not made for Esperanto alone, but formed part of his listing of estimates for all languages of more than one million speakers, published annually in the [[World Almanac]] and Book of Facts. Culbert's most detailed account of his methodology is found in a 1989 letter to David Wolff.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.panix.com/~dwolff/docs/culbert-methods.html |title=Number of Esperantists (methods) |publisher=Panix.com |access-date=December 5, 2010 |archive-date=November 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120200544/http://www.panix.com/~dwolff/docs/culbert-methods.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Since Culbert never published detailed intermediate results for particular countries and regions, it is difficult to independently gauge the accuracy of his results.

In the Almanac, his estimates for numbers of language speakers were rounded to the nearest million, thus the number of Esperanto speakers is shown as two million. This latter figure appears in ''[[Ethnologue]]''. Assuming that this figure is accurate, that means that about 0.03% of the world's population speaks the language. Although it does not meet Zamenhof's goal of a [[international auxiliary language|universal language]], it still represents a level of popularity unmatched by any other constructed language.

Marcus Sikosek (now [[Ziko van Dijk]]) has challenged this figure of 1.6&nbsp;million as exaggerated. He estimated that even if Esperanto speakers were evenly distributed, assuming one million Esperanto speakers worldwide would lead one to expect about 180 in the city of [[Cologne, Germany|Cologne]]. Van Dijk finds only 30 [[fluency|fluent]] speakers in that city, and similarly smaller-than-expected figures in several other places thought to have a larger-than-average concentration of Esperanto speakers. He also notes that there are a total of about 20,000 members of the various Esperanto organizations (other estimates are higher). Though there are undoubtedly many Esperanto speakers who are not members of any Esperanto organization, he thinks it unlikely that there are fifty times more speakers than organization members.<ref name=Sikosek_2003 />

In 1996, [[Finns|Finnish]] [[linguistics|linguist]] [[Jouko Lindstedt]], an expert on native-born Esperanto speakers, presented the following scheme<ref name=Lindstedt_1996>Lindstedt, Jouko. "Re: {{lang|eo|Kiom?}}" (posting). [http://www.helsinki.fi/~jslindst/denask-l.html DENASK-L@helsinki.fi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507110433/http://www.helsinki.fi/%7Ejslindst/denask-l.html |date=May 7, 2011 }}, April 22, 1996.</ref> to show the overall proportions of language capabilities within the Esperanto community:
* 1,000 have Esperanto as their native family language.
* 10,000 speak it fluently.
* 100,000 can use it actively.
* One million understand a large amount passively.
* Ten million have studied it to some extent at some time.

In 2017, doctoral student Svend Nielsen estimated around 63,000 Esperanto speakers worldwide, taking into account association memberships, user-generated data from Esperanto websites and census statistics. This number, however, was disputed by statistician Sten Johansson, who questioned the reliability of the source data and highlighted a wide margin of error, the latter point with which Nielsen agrees. Both have stated, however, that this new number is likely more realistic than some earlier projections.<ref name="svend"/>

In the absence of Culbert's detailed sampling data, or any other census data, it is impossible to state the number of speakers with certainty. According to the website of the [[Universal Esperanto Association]]:

<blockquote>Numbers of [[textbook]]s sold and membership of local societies put "the number of people with some knowledge of the language in the hundreds of thousands and possibly millions".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://uea.org/info/en/ghisdate_pri_esperanto |title=An Update on Esperanto |publisher=Universala Esperanto‑Asocio |archive-date=2016-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161209111559/http://uea.org/info/en/ghisdate_pri_esperanto |url-status=live |location=New York |quote=Based on the number of textbooks sold and membership&nbsp;..., the number of people with some knowledge of Esperanto is in the hundreds of thousands and possibly millions.&nbsp;... In 1954&nbsp;... UNESCO&nbsp;... recognised that the achievements of Esperanto match UNESCO's aims and ideals, and official relations were established between UNESCO and UEA. }}</ref></blockquote>