Education and Skills

Which countries are best at English as a second language?

english-speaking-countries-world

These charts reveal where English is most widely spoken as a second language. Image: REUTERS

Keith Breene
Senior Writer, Forum Agenda

English is the world’s most widely spoken language but is unusual in the fact that the vast majority of speakers are not ‘native’.

Of the approximately 1.5 billion people who speak English, less than 400 million use it as a first language. That means over 1 billion speak it as a secondary language.

The English Proficiency Index has published its latest research on where English is learned around the world and quality of teaching in each country to find the places with the highest proficiency of English as a second language.

english-second-language-speaking-countries
Image: EF English Proficiency Index

The Netherlands has emerged as the nation with the highest English language proficiency, according to the EF English Proficiency Index, with a score of 72. It is ahead of five other northern European nations at the top of the chart.

In fact, the only non-European nation in the top ten is Singapore at number six.

English Speaking Countries in Europe

english-speaking-countries-europe
Image: EF English Proficiency Index

It is not surprising that Europe has so many nations near the top of the Index given historical trade links with the UK and the fact that it is one of three ‘working languages’, along with French and German, of the European Commission.

Have you read?

English Speaking Countries in Asia

asia-english-speaking-countries
Image: EF English Proficiency Index

Although European nations feature prominently at the top of the Index, Asia has a higher overall average proficiency.

Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines all received strong ratings.

English in Latin America

Latin-america-english-speaking-countries
Image: EF English Proficiency Index

Argentina stands out as the most proficient Latin American nation – only it and the Dominican Republic are rated higher than ‘low’ or ‘very low’ proficiency.

English in Middle East and North Africa

countries-speaking-english-in-middle-east
Image: EF English Proficiency Index

The poorest performing region is the Middle East and North Africa where all but two nations – Morocco and the United Arab Emirates are rated very low.

English related to Innovation and wealth

The report found that better English in a country correlates with higher income, higher levels of innovation and a better quality of life

In nearly all countries surveyed, women had stronger English skills than men.

Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Future of Work

Related topics:
Education and SkillsJobs and the Future of Work
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Future of Work is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

Equitable AI skilling can help solve talent scarcity – this is what leaders can do

Sander van 't Noordende

December 5, 2024

How 'green education' could speed up the net-zero transition

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum