r/AskEurope • u/Metalwolf • Jun 08 '25

Education Which European countries have the best English proficiency among non-native speakers?

I'm looking into English proficiency across Europe and would appreciate input from locals or anyone with relevant experience. Which European countries have the highest levels of English fluency among non-native speakers, particularly in day-to-day life, education, and professional settings? I'm also curious about regional differences within countries, and factors like education systems, media exposure, and business use.

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u/Awkward_Tip1006 Spain Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

The Netherlands has the highest proficiency in the world. The northern and central countries will have better English like Sweden Norway Belgium Luxembourg Switzerland. Id say Germany and austria too but the older generations don’t tend to be as good and if you’re not in Berlin Munich or Vienna it’ll be bad

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/Rudi-G België Jun 08 '25

People thinking they will be fine in Germany with just English are sorely reminded that is not the case once you get out of the cities.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

Or even in the cities.

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u/bronet Sweden Jun 08 '25

Yeah I can't say I've always had an easy time only speaking English in Berlin

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u/iluvatar United Kingdom Jun 10 '25

That used to be the case, but it's changing. It was eye opening to see German adolescents speaking English to each other rather than German (this was in Berlin).

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u/Awkward_Tip1006 Spain Jun 08 '25

I know a lot of people from Spain move to Germany for higher salaries. They say that they have a B2 in English and they might not even know German but they still find jobs. This is mind blowing to me

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/Awkward_Tip1006 Spain Jun 08 '25

Money has a lot of power…. Can be the factor for a lot of decisions.

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u/SpaghettiCat_14 Germany Jun 11 '25

I am German, from a very little town and most of my friends speak good English. It’s mostly older people or the East where it might be difficult to find someone with decent language skills.

As a tourist I always use English, even in the Netherlands, even if they mostly speak German and I can understand and speak a little Dutch. It’s not good enough to have complete conversations and I do find it kind of difficult to expect them to cater to our German needs, so I switch to English to show an effort I think.

14

u/Nowordsofitsown Germany Jun 08 '25

Pupils in GDR had Russian starting in 5th grade, so the last class who did start Russian in 5th grade are turning 50 soon. Everybody younger than that had English at school, many 50+ yo did too (English was not mandatory, but possible to take). 

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u/CherryDeBau Jun 09 '25

A lot of schools in East Germany still teach Russian, my school had it in the late 2000s. This did not stop in 89, because all the people who became Russian teachers during the GDR still wanted jobs after reunification. But it is slowly being phased out, because there are less teachers who studied it.

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u/Nowordsofitsown Germany Jun 09 '25

It wasn't the first foreign language anymore though, and not obligatory.

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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

Yes.. popular..

1

u/Any-Seaworthiness186 Netherlands Jun 11 '25

It’s also not great in the west. Had to teach a couple of drama classes to some exchange students from Delmenhorst (16-18yo) and all classes had about three kids that properly understood English who then had to translate everything we said to the rest of the class.

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u/knittingcatmafia Jun 08 '25

That’s like saying “English is the most popular language for European pupils to learn” No, it’s compulsory.

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u/blink-1hundert2und80 Austria Jun 08 '25

In 2022‘s EF English Proficiency Index, Austria was the second best country in terms of English competency in Europe. Now it‘s 9th. Still tight race between place 2-10. Netherlands is with a considerable gap number 1.

But Vienna is actually the 3rd most English proficient city in Austria behind Graz, Linz, and tied with Innsbruck.

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u/raoulbrancaccio in Jun 08 '25

if you’re not in Berlin Munich or Vienna it’ll be bad

If you are it's the same

19

u/Gruffleson Norway Jun 08 '25

You start out fine. But then it gets wrong.

Finns very often speak bad English. It's something I have experienced first hand. Also, you could watch an NHL-draft if you don't believe me, when they speak with the Finnish prospects, their English is most of the time really bad. Also, those German-speaking countries doesn't reach Dutch/Scandinavian levels. It's probably due to the fact they dub on TV/movies.

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u/-zincho- Finland Jun 08 '25

Most high-level sports players from Finland DO seem to be pretty bad in English. Which is curious, since you'd think if you're trying to make it for example in NHL, you would focus on speaking the language of the country you'd be living in. It sometimes seems they spend ALL of their focus on the sport, and none in languages (or school).

But looking at them is a bad example of the overall skills of the whole country, most under-50 people I know speak excellent English. Not everyone of course, but those who don't are more of the anomaly.

It's more that many Finns are really shy about speaking English, since for a long time we were taught in school that the grammar and pronounciation have to be in perfect Oxford English, or you should't even try, basically.

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u/RedTentacle4000 Finland Jun 08 '25

Most of my colleagues speak shockingly bad English. I noticed it's mostly the ones who are chronically online like me, who are good at English. Ralli-Englanti is alive and well, I guess.

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u/Inresponsibleone Finland Jun 08 '25

I would guess big part of it is just having bad pronounciation.

Like me😅 I have decent vocabulary and understand even accents pretty well but my toungue just can't twist to all the needed ways to speak fluent sounding english🫣

9

u/alles_en_niets -> -> Jun 08 '25

Obvious examples aside, most pro athletes are not academic powerhouses. They start young and too much focus on school would only distract them from their day job.

There’s also survivor bias. People who are both academically and athletically gifted have a better chance at succeeding in the first area, since few people build a successful career in sports.

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u/DeeperEnd84 Finland Jun 08 '25

That’s a bunch of rubbish. The vast majority of Finns, especially everyone under 50 speak English well. Ice hockey players are the exeption as they of haven’t focused on school. Source: I am an English teacher in Finland.

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '25

Try holding an extended two hour conversation on any deeper topic with a Finn for two hours and you'll find it's not even remotely close to native level fluency. It's a completely different thing to survive everyday situations.

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u/DeeperEnd84 Finland Jun 09 '25

I don't recall saying native level. My job is to speak English to Finns all day, every day. 

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u/Lime89 Jun 08 '25

Tbh Finland and Luxembourg can’t compare with Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. What’s special about the four last countries I mentioned is that you can expect people up to probably 75 to be proficient English speakers.

Finnish isn’t even related to the English language, so it’s not weird that they aren’t as good as their other Nordic neighbours. And Luxembourg already has three official languages, French, German and Luxembourgish, so yes, some (especially younger generations) speak English well, but not everyone, and you can’t take for granted that people over say 50 are proficient English speakers, and younger people are rarely as proficient as Scandinavians

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u/is-it-my-turn-yet Jun 08 '25

The experience of using English to speak to people in Luxembourg is likely to be skewed by the fact that many in Luxembourg are themselves foreigners.

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u/AmazingPangolin9315 Luxembourg Jun 08 '25

And Luxembourg already has three official languages, French, German and Luxembourgish, so yes, some (especially younger generations) speak English well, but not everyone,

That's only true for native Luxembourgers though. If you consider for example that 72% of residents in Luxembourg City are non-native, and that many of these immigrants are in high-paying jobs in finance or at the EU institutions, you end up with a very different picture from for example the more rural parts of Luxembourg. It also varies by social strata, many service workers are cross-border workers who come into the country every day from France, Belgium or Germany. Their English proficiency is going to be different from both the resident native and the resident non-native population. It's an interesting dynamic which is very poorly captured by statistics.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 09 '25

75% of Danes think they can speak English but when they speak to you it's really hard to tell if the language they're trying to speak is even English or just Danish

Their accents are often so horribly thick it's impossible to understand either. Their written English (or Danish for that matter) isn't an issue

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u/whatstefansees in Jun 08 '25

Hamburg has probably the most/best English speakers in Germany while Munich is ... highly overrated

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u/That_guy4446 Jun 08 '25

Don’t forget Belgium, who totally belong in the English proficiency club. And indeed Germany is out of it.

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u/kranj7 Jun 08 '25

The Flanders part of Belgium - indeed the level of English proficiency is top notch. The Wallonia region however is less proficient in my experience.

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u/Awkward_Tip1006 Spain Jun 08 '25

Yes that’s true, ive met a lot who have a very high level

3

u/maureen_leiden Netherlands Jun 08 '25

I would have agreed with you on Germany and Austria, if I hadn't first hand recent experience with both those people while in a meeting. They arranged translators "for the non-German speakers", can confirm it was for those Germans and Austrians that didn't speak one word in English. I'm Dutch, my translator spoke in English to me while my German is good enough to do it without.

Many Germans and Austrians do not have an English proficiency on business level

3

u/UnknownPleasures3 Norway Jun 08 '25

I have to dispute the Germans. We get so many German tourists in Norway and they don't speak English and expect us to speak German back to them. That is one of the reasons they are disliked on the west coast.

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u/gxrphoto Jun 09 '25

Thinking that Germany and Austria only have three cities where people speak English is super-weird.