Language

What are the levels of English Proficiency around the world?



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We all know that English is a widely spoken language, but the level of proficiency ranges around the world.

Millions of people have English as their first language, but over a billion people speak it as their second, third or fourth language. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom and the US contribute to the large population of native speakers. Former British Crown colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean add more English speakers to this pool. However, among countries where it is not the first language, the level of English proficiency can vary from country-to-country.

To analyze the average level of English language skills among non-English speaking nations, EF Education First publishes the EF English Proficiency Index, which is a ranking of English skills by country. The most recent was seventh index of EF English Proficiency Index, released in November 2017, and again, just like the Index of 2016, Netherlands topped the list. The nation had a score of 71.45 in 2016. Barring Singapore, the other countries with very high English proficiency were European nations, including; Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Luxembourg.

India, Spain, South Korea, France, Italy, Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, and others were listed as nations where the proficiency in English is ‘moderate.’ In comparison to 2016 Index, Indonesia shifted from Moderate to Low Proficiency and Slovakia shifted from Moderate to High Proficiency.


Many countries on the list of English proficiency are listed as ‘low,’ or ‘very low.’ Some nations listed as ‘low,’ include; Russia, Japan, China, Brazil, Pakistan, for example. Thailand has jumped up on the proficiency level form ‘Very low,’ to ‘Low’. On the other hand, Morocco has ‘Very low’ proficiency, although it was ‘low’ last year. Other nations listed at ‘very low’ include; Turkey, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Iran, Oman, Kuwait, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, and others.

The table below provides information on the levels of English proficiency around the world for the year 2017.

Country Rank Score Proficiency
Netherlands 1 71.45 Very High
Sweden 2 70.4 Very High
Denmark 3 69.93 Very High
Norway 4 67.77 Very High
Singapore 5 66.03 Very High
Finland 6 65.83 Very High
Luxembourg 7 64.57 Very High
South Africa 8 63.37 Very High
Germany 9 62.35 High
Austria 10 62.18 High
Poland 11 62.07 High
Belgium 12 61.58 High
Malaysia 13 61.07 High
Switzerland 14 60.95 High
Philippines 15 60.59 High
Serbia 16 59.37 High
Romania 17 59.13 High
Portugal 18 58.76 High
Hungary 19 58.61 High
Czech Republic 20 57.87 High
Slovakia 21 57.63 High
Bulgaria 22 57.34 Moderate
Greece 23 57.14 Moderate
Lithuania 24 57.08 Moderate
Argentina 25 56.51 Moderate
Dominican Republic 26 56.31 Moderate
India 27 56.12 Moderate
Spain 28 56.06 Moderate
Hong Kong 29 55.81 Moderate
South Korea 30 55.32 Moderate
Nigeria 31 54.74 Moderate
France 32 54.39 Moderate
Italy 33 54.19 Moderate
Vietnam 34 53.43 Moderate
Costa Rica 35 53.13 Moderate
China 36 52.45 Low
Japan 37 52.34 Low
Russia 38 52.19 Low
Indonesia 39 52.15 Low
Taiwan 40 52.04 Low
Brazil 41 51.92 Low
Macau 42 51.87 Low
Uruguay 43 51.73 Low
Mexico 44 51.57 Low
Chile 45 51.5 Low
Bangladesh 46 50.96 Low
Ukraine 47 50.91 Low
Cuba 48 50.83 Low
Panama 49 50.68 Low
Peru 50 50.5 Low
Colombia 51 49.97 Low
Pakistan 52 49.88 Low
Thailand 53 49.78 Low
Guatemala 54 49.52 Low
Ecuador 55 49.42 Low
Tunisia 56 49.01 Low
United Arab Emirates 57 48.88 Low
Syria 58 48.49 Very Low
Qatar 59 48.19 Very Low
Morocco 60 47.91 Very Low
Sri Lanka 61 47.84 Very Low
Turkey 62 47.79 Very Low
Jordan 63 47.4 Very Low
Azerbaijan 64 46.97 Very Low
Iran 65 46.6 Very Low
Egypt 66 46.51 Very Low
Kazakhstan 67 45.95 Very Low
Venezuela 68 45.71 Very Low
El Salvador 69 45.7 Very Low
Oman 70 44.48 Very Low
Mongolia 71 44.21 Very Low
Saudi Arabia 72 43.98 Very Low
Angola 73 43.49 Very Low
Kuwait 74 43.14 Very Low
Cameroon 75 42.45 Very Low
Algeria 76 42.11 Very Low
Cambodia 77 40.86 Very Low
Libya 78 38.61 Very Low
Iraq 79 38.12 Very Low
Laos 80 37.56 Very Low

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Related Maps:

Netherlands Map
Sweden Map
Denmark Map
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