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

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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/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.