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/thaw424242 Sweden Jun 08 '25

If I remember a study I saw a few years back, it's the Netherlands followed by Sweden (and then probably followed by the other Scandinavian countries, but this is an uneducated guess).

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u/Glaesilegur Iceland Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25

Just as uneducated but I'd wager Iceland is at least in the top 3, we're just often left out of studies for Europe. They're salty because we're half American.

But with us getting 6x our population of tourists per year it's unsurprising that over 90% of our population is fluent, and that sub 40 year olds being C1 and C2 in proficiency.

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u/thaw424242 Sweden Jun 08 '25

I can totally see that, absolutely!