How fast is the English language expanding?

Recent research suggests that the English language has doubled in size over the last century. It continues to grow by 8,500 words a year and now stands at 1,022,000 words.'

This growth is accelerating, with the word count expanding by more than 70 per cent since 1950. In the previous half-century, this growth was only 10 per cent. 

Linguistic Globalisation

A general linguistic trend is towards globalisation. As English terms enter other languages, more loanwords come in the other direction. These often describe 'foreign' concepts: feng shui, from Chinese, for example.

Science & Technology

New vocabulary categories have also accompanied advances in science and technology. These often draw on existing loanwords. For example, digital comes from the Latin for digit or finger.

Which language has the most words?