English at the United Nations General Debate
29/9/26
As the 2026 United Nations General Assembly General Debate has now closed, and myself and my students begin to analyse the English speeches and the language used, I will offer a breakdown of the numbers regarding English speeches made at the 2026 United Nations General Assembly’s General Debate.
This year, 195 countries spoke at the General Debate (193 Member States + Palestine + the Holy See).
The European Union also spoke, but the African Union did not.
There were also opening and closing speeches by the Secretary General of the UN; António Guterres, and the President of the General Assembly; Khalilur Rahman.
For the purpose of this analysis, speeches made by the Secretary General of the UN, the President of the General Assembly and the EU will not count in the amount of “total speeches”, as this aims to analyse speeches made by countries, not organisations.
Additionally “as official or working language” is based on the criteria that; a language is recognised in an official capacity by the country’s own government, by the United Nations as their designated language or recognised as a working language in the country’s own constitution.
Of the 195 countries who spoke at the 2026 General Debate, 106 made their speech in English (54% of total speeches).
Of those 106 countries:
- 48 of them did not have English as an official or working language (24% of total speeches, 45% of English speeches)
- 14 of them have a non-English UN working language as an official or working language (Arabic: 4, French: 6, Russian: 3, Chinese: 1, Spanish: 0) (7.1% of total speeches, 13.02% of English speeches)
- 23 were from Africa (21.7% of English speeches)
- 22 were from Asia (20.8% of English speeches)
- 32 were from Europe (30.2% of English speeches)
- 12 were from North America (12.3% of English speeches)
- 2 were from South America (1.9% of English speeches)
- 14 were from Oceania (13.2% of English speeches)
Of the 48 countries that did not have English as an official or working language:
- 2 were from Africa (4.2% of English speeches)
- 16 were from Asia (33.3% of English speeches)
- 29 were from Europe (60.4% of English speeches)
- 1 was from South America (2.1% of English speeches)
What is explored in this small piece of research is solely the number of English speeches made at the 2026 UN General Assembly General Debate, and not the purpose, popularity nor potential consequences of the speeches.
Although certain speeches appear to have gained more attention or virality - it is a difficult thing to measure. To explain, the speech made by Finland garnered over three million views on the DRM News Youtube Channel, but only 24,000 on the official United Nations Youtube Channel. Thus, the metric of what defines a successful or viral speech at the 2026 UN General Debate is itself - up for debate.
That is not a debate that I intend to tackle. The intention with this small piece of research is to provide an insight into the use of English at the United Nations, and thus its purpose is served.
- United Nations General Assembly (2026) General Debate of the 81st session: statements, 22 September 2026. Available at: https://gadebate.un.org/en?field_release_date_value_1%5Bmin%5D=1790035200&field_release_date_value_1%5Bmax%5D=1790121600
- United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) Work Group on Country Names (2009) UNGEGN list of country names. Available at: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/geoinfo/UNGEGN/docs/9th-uncsgn-docs/UNGEGN%20WG%20Country%20Names%20Document%20-%20August%202009.pdf
