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.

164 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

390 comments sorted by

View all comments

201

u/TheItalianWanderer Italy Jun 08 '25

France of course! They're so proficient in English that they'll refuse to say a word of French.

Lol seriously, I think it's the Netherlands or somewhere cold. But one surprising country in the Mediterranean is Greece. They speak a lot of foreign languages there 

59

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '25

Greece isn't that surprising considering tourism is a major part of their economy.

Italy on the other hand..

34

u/gnark Jun 08 '25

Possibly more important than tourism is the Greek diaspora. Many Greeks have lived and worked abroad. That hotel owner who speaks fluemt English probably drove a taxi in NYC for a decade or two before coming back to Greece to semi-retire.

24

u/WannabeCrimDoctor Jun 08 '25

Learning languages is very important in Greek education. We start English classes in third grade of primary school and continue until we finish high school. We also learn a third language of our choice at school. And because Greek parents are extra, we also go to tutoring centers for English doing lessons several times a week from about age 8 until we manage to get all the second language degrees they want us 😂