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Which European Countries Speak the Best English? Two Rankings
Written by Tom Wilkinson — Cambridge CELTA
Recorded and taught by a team of British and North American English teachers, based in Oxford (UK) and Barcelona (Spain).
In this article: The Netherlands is first on every measure. After that, the best-known ranking and the EU’s own survey disagree. Both lists, country by country.
The short answer is the Netherlands. It comes first in the best-known ranking of English skills, and first in the European Union’s own survey. More than nine in ten Dutch people say they can hold a conversation in English.
After the Netherlands, the answer depends on what you mean by “best”. One ranking measures how well people do in a test. The other counts how many people speak English at all. The two lists look very different.
This page shows both, side by side, for 41 European countries. It also explains why the Nordic countries are so far ahead, where Spain, France and Italy stand, and how far you can trust rankings like these.
The short version
- Highest test scores: the Netherlands (624 points), then Croatia, Austria, Germany and Norway. Source: the EF English Proficiency Index 2025.
- Most people who speak English: the Netherlands (93%), Sweden (90%) and Denmark (87%). Source: the EU’s survey of 2023.
- Across the EU, 47% of people say they can hold a conversation in English. Among people aged 15 to 24, it is 70%.
- Lowest test scores in the EU: Italy (513), Cyprus (537), France (539) and Spain (540).
- Fewest English speakers in the EU: Romania (25%), Poland (27%) and Bulgaria (29%).
- The two lists often disagree. Romania and Poland are in the top group for test scores.
Where is English strongest in Europe?
The map shows the EF English Proficiency Index. It is the ranking that most news stories quote. EF Education First, a company that sells language courses, publishes it every year. The scores come from a free online English test.
Very high (600 points or more)High (550 to 599)Moderate (500 to 549)Low (450 to 499)English is a first or official languageNot ranked by EF
AL Albania · AM Armenia · AT Austria · AZ Azerbaijan · BA Bosnia and Herzegovina · BE Belgium · BG Bulgaria · BY Belarus · CH Switzerland · CY Cyprus · CZ Czechia · DE Germany · DK Denmark · EE Estonia · ES Spain · FI Finland · FR France · GE Georgia · GR Greece · HR Croatia · HU Hungary · IE Ireland · IS Iceland · IT Italy · LT Lithuania · LU Luxembourg · LV Latvia · MD Moldova · MK North Macedonia · MT Malta · NL Netherlands · NO Norway · PL Poland · PT Portugal · RO Romania · RS Serbia · RU Russia · SE Sweden · SI Slovenia · SK Slovakia · TR Türkiye · UA Ukraine · UK United Kingdom
Source: EF Education First, EF EPI 2025 (tests taken in 2024). The index does not include the United Kingdom, Ireland or Malta.
EF sorts countries into five bands. In the 2025 edition, 13 European countries are in the top band, “very high”. Another 10 are “high”, 12 are “moderate” and 2 are “low”. No European country is in the lowest band.
The pattern is easy to see. The north and the centre of Europe are dark. The three big countries of the south-west, Spain, France and Italy, are lighter. So is most of the former Soviet Union.
Small differences mean very little. The 13 countries in the top band are only 24 points apart, on a scale that runs to 800.
The full ranking: 41 countries, two measures
The table gives two numbers for each country. They measure different things.
- EF score. The average result of the people in that country who chose to take EF’s online test. Most of them are young adults.
- Can hold a conversation in English. The share of all people aged 15 and over who told an EU survey in 2023 that they speak English well enough to have a conversation. Only the 27 EU countries were surveyed.
| Country | EF scoreEF EPI 2025 | Can hold a conversation in EnglishEU survey, 2023 · EU countries only |
|---|---|---|
| Very high proficiency · 600 points or more | ||
| 1Netherlands | 624 | 93% |
| 2Croatia | 617 | 41% |
| 3Austria | 616 | 54% |
| 4Germany | 615 | 65% |
| 5Norway | 613 | – |
| 6Portugal | 612 | 41% |
| 7Denmark | 611 | 87% |
| 8Sweden | 609 | 90% |
| 9Belgium | 608 | 58% |
| 10Slovakia | 606 | 38% |
| 11Romania | 605 | 25% |
| 12Finland | 603 | 81% |
| 13Poland | 600 | 27% |
| High proficiency · 550 to 599 | ||
| 14Latvia | 598 | 54% |
| 15North Macedonia | 595 | – |
| 16Bulgaria | 594 | 29% |
| 17Greece | 592 | 51% |
| 18Bosnia and Herzegovina | 591 | – |
| 19Hungary | 590 | 30% |
| 20Czechia | 582 | 41% |
| 21Serbia | 578 | – |
| 22Switzerland | 564 | – |
| 23Estonia | 561 | 58% |
| Moderate proficiency · 500 to 549 | ||
| 24Lithuania | 543 | 44% |
| 25Georgia | 541 | – |
| 26Spain | 540 | 38% |
| 27France | 539 | 40% |
| 28Cyprus | 537 | 73% |
| 29Belarus | 533 | – |
| 30Albania | 532 | – |
| 31Moldova | 531 | – |
| 32Ukraine | 526 | – |
| 33Russia | 521 | – |
| 34Armenia | 515 | – |
| 35Italy | 513 | 33% |
| Low proficiency · 450 to 499 | ||
| 36Türkiye | 488 | – |
| 37Azerbaijan | 454 | – |
| Not ranked by EF | ||
| –Malta | – | 86% (official language) |
| –Luxembourg | – | 68% |
| –Slovenia | – | 61% |
| –Ireland | – | first language |
Sources: EF Education First, EF EPI 2025; European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 540 (interviews in September and October 2023). A dash means the country is not in that source.
The 10 European countries with the highest test scores
- Netherlands: 624 points. 93% say they can hold a conversation in English.
- Croatia: 617 points. 41% say they can hold a conversation in English.
- Austria: 616 points. 54% say they can hold a conversation in English.
- Germany: 615 points. 65% say they can hold a conversation in English.
- Norway: 613 points. not in the EU survey.
- Portugal: 612 points. 41% say they can hold a conversation in English.
- Denmark: 611 points. 87% say they can hold a conversation in English.
- Sweden: 609 points. 90% say they can hold a conversation in English.
- Belgium: 608 points. 58% say they can hold a conversation in English.
- Slovakia: 606 points. 38% say they can hold a conversation in English.
Look at the second number on each line. The Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden are near the top of both lists. Croatia, Portugal and Slovakia are not. Their test scores are among the best in the world, yet fewer than half of their people say they can hold a conversation in English.
We explain why further down. First, the other list.
How many Europeans can actually speak English?
Just under half. Across the EU, 47% of people say they speak English well enough to have a conversation. That is 5 points more than in 2012.
Source: European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 540. The question was: “Which other language, if any, do you speak well enough in order to be able to have a conversation?” About 1,000 people were interviewed in each country (about 500 in Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta), so each figure could be about 3 points higher or lower. *English is an official language of Malta. Ireland is left out because English is most people’s first language there.
The differences are huge. In the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, at least eight people in ten speak English. In Romania, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary, it is three in ten or fewer. English is a foreign language in 25 EU countries, and in only 13 of them does more than half the population speak it.
Age matters more than anything else. Across the EU, 70% of people aged 15 to 24 say they can hold a conversation in English. Among people aged 55 and over, it is 31%.
And “well enough to have a conversation” is not the same as “well”. Of the Europeans who speak English, 27% call their level very good, 43% good and 27% basic.
Do the two rankings agree?
At the very top, yes. In the middle, hardly at all.
AT Austria · BE Belgium · BG Bulgaria · CY Cyprus · CZ Czechia · DE Germany · DK Denmark · EE Estonia · ES Spain · FI Finland · FR France · GR Greece · HR Croatia · HU Hungary · IT Italy · LT Lithuania · LV Latvia · NL Netherlands · PL Poland · PT Portugal · RO Romania · SE Sweden · SK Slovakia
Sources: EF EPI 2025; Special Eurobarometer 540 (2023). The 23 EU countries that are in both sources and where English is a foreign language.
If the two measures agreed, the dots would run in a line from the bottom left to the top right. They do not. Four groups stand out.
- Almost everyone, and at a high level. The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. More than eight people in ten speak English, and test scores are in the top band. Norway is not in the EU survey, but its EF score is in the same range.
- High scores, few speakers. Croatia, Portugal, Slovakia, Romania and Poland are all in EF’s top band. In every one of them, fewer than half the people say they can hold a conversation in English. In Romania it is 25%, the lowest figure in the EU.
- Moderate scores, few speakers. Spain, France and Italy. They have the lowest test scores in western Europe, and only a third to four in ten of their people speak English.
- Many speakers, a moderate score. Cyprus is on its own. 73% of Cypriots say they speak English, more than in Germany (65%). Cyprus was under British rule until 1960.
Why the two lists disagree
They measure different people.
Nobody is chosen to take EF’s test. People decide to take it themselves. Their average age is 26, and 85% of them are under 35. They are also people who want to know how good their English is.
The EU survey works the other way. It interviews about 1,000 people in each country, chosen at random to represent everyone aged 15 and over. It reaches grandparents as well as students. But it does not test anybody. It asks.
In the Netherlands, almost everybody speaks English, so the two methods find much the same thing. In Romania, the people who sit an online English test are likely to be a small, well-educated part of the country. Their scores can be excellent while most of their parents and grandparents speak no English at all. Across the EU, only 8% of people who left school by the age of 15 say they can hold a conversation in English. Among people who studied until 20 or later, it is 69%.
So the two numbers answer two different questions. The EF score tells you how good a country’s keen, mostly young test-takers are. The survey tells you how likely it is that a person you meet in the street can talk to you.
For readers who like a number: across the 23 countries, the link between the two measures is weak. The correlation is 0.28, where 1 would mean perfect agreement and 0 none. It was not always so. For every edition of the EF index from 2011 to 2018, the same calculation gives between 0.75 and 0.92. The two lists have moved apart since then. EF’s scores for central and eastern Europe have climbed to the level of the Nordic countries. The share of people who speak English there has not.
Which European countries have the lowest English proficiency?
It depends on the measure again.
By test score, the lowest in Europe are Azerbaijan (454) and Türkiye (488). They are the only two European countries in EF’s “low” band. Inside the EU, the lowest scores are those of Italy (513), Cyprus (537), France (539) and Spain (540).
By number of speakers, the lowest in the EU are Romania (25%), Poland (27%), Bulgaria (29%), Hungary (30%) and Italy (33%).
Italy is the only EU country near the bottom of both lists.
Why are the Dutch and the Nordic countries so good at English?
There is no single reason. Researchers who compare countries find several things that point the same way, and in north-west Europe they all come together.
Their languages are close to English. Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and German belong to the same family as English, and thousands of words look or sound alike. Every study we found that compares countries points the same way: the closer a language is to English, the more of its speakers know English. But this is not the whole story. Finnish is not related to English at all, and Finland is near the top.
Their languages are small. A country with a small language imports most of what it watches and reads, and needs another language to trade, study and travel. People who speak Spanish, French, German or Italian can live comfortably in their own language. A study of 27 EU countries found that the more widely a person’s own language is spoken, the less likely that person is to speak English.
They hear English all the time. In these countries, foreign films and series are shown in the original language with subtitles. In the EU survey, 93% of Dutch people and 95% of Swedes said they prefer subtitles to dubbing. In Spain it was 40%, and in Germany 34%. A study of 135 countries found higher scores in an English test where television is subtitled, and the gain was biggest for listening. Subtitles are not enough by themselves, though. Portugal and Romania also use them, and fewer than half of their people speak English.
Children pick up English outside school. In Belgium, researchers tested 780 Dutch-speaking children before their first English lesson. A quarter of them could already understand spoken English at a basic level, from games, videos and social media. A European school study found the same link in almost every country it covered: pupils who met more English outside the classroom scored higher.
Starting early at school is not the reason. Dutch children do not have to learn a foreign language until the age of 10. In Denmark, Finland and Sweden it is 7. In Spain, France and Italy it is 6. Spain gives its first foreign language about 1,050 hours of lessons over the school years. Norway gives 588.
One small study shows the pattern clearly. Researchers compared pupils aged 14 and 15 in one Danish school and one Spanish school. The Spanish pupils had started English five years earlier and had had more than twice as many lessons. Most had also taken extra classes. The Danish pupils understood spoken English much better. The Spanish pupils were better at one thing: explaining the rules of grammar.
Tourism does not seem to be enough either. France and Spain receive more foreign visitors than any other countries in the world, and both are in the lower half of both lists.
How good is English in Spain?
Spain is in the lower half of both lists. On EF’s test it is 26th of 37 countries in Europe, in the “moderate” band. In the EU survey, 38% of people say they can hold a conversation in English, against 47% across the EU.
The two sources disagree about the direction. On EF’s test, Spain has stood still: it scored 540 in 2015 and scores 540 now. In the EU survey, Spain has improved more than any other country, from 22% in 2012 to 38% in 2023.
Source: EF Education First, country pages of the EF EPI 2025. EF changed its scale in 2020; the earlier years are shown as EF itself now publishes them.
The comparison with Portugal shows how much depends on the measure. EF puts Portugal 72 points ahead of Spain, in a different band. In the EU survey the two are almost level: 41% and 38%. That gap is smaller than the survey’s margin of error.
| Country | EF score2025 | Can hold a conversation in English2012 → 2023 | Prefer subtitlesto dubbing, 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal | 612 | 27% → 41% | 85% |
| Spain | 540 | 22% → 38% | 40% |
| France | 539 | 39% → 40% | 47% |
| Italy | 513 | 34% → 33% | 53% |
Sources: EF EPI 2025; Special Eurobarometer 540 (2023) and 386 (2012).
Where Spain clearly falls behind is listening. EF gives separate scores for reading and listening. Spain’s listening score is 33 points below its reading score. In the Netherlands the gap is 6 points.
Is English in Europe getting better?
Yes, slowly, and young people are the reason.
In the EU survey, the share of people who can hold a conversation in English rose by 5 points between 2012 and 2023. The biggest rises were in Spain (from 22% to 38%), and in Czechia and Portugal (both from 27% to 41%).
Most of the change comes from age. Seven in ten Europeans aged 15 to 24 speak English, against three in ten of those aged 55 and over. Every year, the first group grows up and the second gets smaller.
The EF index tells a less clear story. Its average for Europe rose from 527 in 2015 to 558 in 2022, and has slipped back to 550. EF’s own report says Europe’s level has “plateaued”. The leaders have fallen back the most: the Netherlands scored 663 in 2021 and scores 624 now. But EF has changed its test several times in those years, so treat the trend with care.
How reliable are these rankings?
Each one has a weak point. They are weak in different ways, which is why it helps to look at both.
The EF index is a real test, but nobody chooses who takes it. More than 2.2 million people took the test in 2024. That is a very large number. It is still not a sample of each country’s population. EF says so itself: its report calls the people tested “self-selected and not guaranteed to be representative”. A country needs only 400 test-takers to be ranked, and EF does not publish how many each country had.
One sign of the problem is how fast the scores move. In the 2025 edition, Germany’s score rose by 17 points and Slovakia’s by 22, while Lithuania’s fell by 26. A country’s English does not change that much in a year. The mix of people who take the test does.
The EU survey asks the right people, but takes their word for it. People judge their own English, and each figure could be about three points higher or lower. Some results are hard to believe. Austria’s figure fell from 73% in 2012 to 54% in 2023.
Only one study has tested a fair sample. In 2011 the EU tested about 53,000 pupils aged 14 to 16, chosen to represent all pupils of their age, in 14 countries. It has never been repeated.
Source: European Commission, First European Survey on Language Competences (2012), Table 10. The 12 countries that tested English as the first foreign language across the whole country. *English is an official language of Malta.
The order looks much more like the EU survey than like today’s EF ranking. Sweden, Malta and the Netherlands were at the top. Spain and France were at the bottom, close to Poland and Portugal, two countries that EF now places in its top band. A lot can change in fifteen years, and those pupils are about 30 today.
A new test is on the way. In 2025 the OECD’s PISA study tested the English of 15-year-olds in 22 countries, among them Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Portugal. The results are due in April 2027.
So what can you trust? Trust the big picture: which countries are in the top group and which are in the bottom one. Do not trust small differences between neighbours in a list, or changes from one year to the next.
What this means if you are learning English
Look again at the countries at the top. Their children do not start English earlier, and they do not have more lessons. They have years of hearing English outside the classroom.
The EF data shows where that matters most. In reading, the Netherlands is 76 points ahead of Spain. In listening, it is 103 points ahead. Countries differ more in what people can understand by ear than in what they can read.
ReadingListening
Source: EF Education First, country pages of the EF EPI 2025.
You cannot go back and grow up in Amsterdam. But you can add the hours of listening now. Listening a lot is essential, and it works best with a transcript and some guidance. We set out the research in Why learn English with real conversations?
That is what we make: real conversations between English speakers, at natural speed, with nothing scripted. There are more than 150 free episodes on this site. You can start with Zapp! English Listening.
The workbooks add the full transcript in English, a glossary, and exercises with answers for every episode.
Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39
Frequently asked questions
Which country in Europe speaks the best English?
The Netherlands. It has the highest score in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025 (624 points), and the highest share of people who say they can hold a conversation in English in the EU’s 2023 survey (93%). Sweden (90%) and Denmark (87%) come next in the survey, and both are in EF’s top band.
Where does Spain rank for English in Europe?
Spain is 26th of 37 European countries in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, with 540 points, a “moderate” level. In the EU’s 2023 survey, 38% of people in Spain said they could hold a conversation in English, up from 22% in 2012.
What percentage of Europeans speak English?
In the European Union, 47% of people aged 15 and over say they speak English well enough to have a conversation, according to the EU’s 2023 survey. Among people aged 15 to 24 it is 70%, and among those aged 55 and over it is 31%.
Which EU country speaks the least English?
By number of speakers, Romania: 25% of people there say they can hold a conversation in English, followed by Poland (27%) and Bulgaria (29%). By test score, Italy has the lowest result in the EU in the EF index (513 points).
Where in Europe can I get by with English?
Most easily in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, where more than eight people in ten speak English, and in Malta and Cyprus. In Germany about two in three people do. In Spain, France and Italy it is between a third and four in ten, and more among young people.
Is the EF English Proficiency Index reliable?
It is a fair guide to how well a country’s test-takers do, and a poor guide to the whole population. The people tested choose to take a free online test, and most are young adults. EF itself says they are “self-selected and not guaranteed to be representative”.
Are the United Kingdom and Ireland in these rankings?
No. The EF index does not include the United Kingdom, Ireland or Malta. The EU survey covers Ireland and Malta, but English is most people’s first language in Ireland and an official language in Malta, so neither can be compared with the other countries.
Where the numbers come from
- Test scores: EF Education First, EF English Proficiency Index 2025, published on 19 November 2025: the ranking, the country pages and the report’s notes on method.
- English speakers: European Commission, Special Eurobarometer 540, Europeans and their languages (2024; interviews in September and October 2023), and Special Eurobarometer 386 (2012) for the earlier figures.
- The 2011 school test: European Commission, First European Survey on Language Competences: Final Report (2012).
- School starting ages and hours: Eurydice, Key data on teaching languages at school in Europe (2023).
- The coming test: OECD, PISA 2025 Results (Volume I) (2026), which describes the English assessment.
- Language size and distance: Gerhards, J. (2014). Transnational linguistic capital: Explaining English proficiency in 27 European countries. International Sociology, 29(1), 56–74. doi:10.1177/0268580913519461
- Subtitles: Rupérez Micola, A., Aparicio-Fenoll, A., Banal-Estañol, A., & Bris, A. (2019). TV or not TV? The impact of subtitling on English skills. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 158, 487–499. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2018.12.019
- English before the first lesson: De Wilde, V., Brysbaert, M., & Eyckmans, J. (2020). Learning English through out-of-school exposure. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(1), 171–185. doi:10.1017/s1366728918001062
- The Danish and Spanish pupils: Muñoz, C., & Cadierno, T. (2021). How do differences in exposure affect English language learning? A comparison of teenagers in two learning environments. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 11(2), 185–212. doi:10.14746/ssllt.2021.11.2.2
We have not combined the two measures into one score, and we have not estimated any missing figure. Where a country is not in a source, the table shows a dash.