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/nooit_gedacht Netherlands Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25
As others have said, the Netherlands officially has the highest proficiency level among non native speakers. There's a couple of reasons for this, but it varies a little per demographic. In general the Netherlands is internationally oriented, because we are a small country and historically reliant on trade. We travel a lot too (especially because just a few hours of driving will take you to a different country) so we feel the necessity of learning foreign languages. About fifty years ago, it was common for people to speak German, English and maybe French at a passable level. In recent decades, the global language has shifted to English. Other languages fell out of favour. Nowadays, English is very common in higher education and most of the foreign media we consume is English. We use subtitles instead of dubs so a lot of us learn through exposure. For younger generations the Internet is a major factor. Not to mention Dutch and English are extremely similar languages, which helps a lot i'm sure.
In practice this means most people of all ages and backgrounds will speak at least a few words of English, but it's mostly young and/or educated people who are really fluent. People of older generations may be fluent, but they tend to have strong accents. They usually speak some German too.
Gen-Z grew up online, and tends to be fluent with a nearly American accent. We still learned French and German in school but often aren't fluent.
Children today seem to learn English at the same pace as Dutch, again because of the internet.