Ranking Countries by English Skills – This edition of the EF EPI is based on test data from more than 2,200,000 test takers around the world who took the EF Standard English Test (EF SET) or one of our English placement tests in 2019.
More than a billion people speak English as a first or second language, and hundreds of millions more as a third or fourth. For expanding businesses, young graduates, scientists and researchers, and international tourists, English proficiency broadens horizons, lowers barriers, and speeds information exchange. The incentives to learn English have never been greater.
And yet, the demand for English proficiency far outpaces supply. Education systems founded in response to the first industrial revolution have yet to adapt to the demands of the fourth. A front-loaded culture of learning leaves adults little time to reskill. The growth of the gig economy asks people to transition quickly from declining to emerging opportunities.
We often see English proficiency presented as a competitive advantage, but our analysis suggests that it is equally significant for the connections it enables. These connections may help individuals find better jobs or
start their own businesses, but they are also intrinsically valuable. Connection is one of the defining characteristics of the global citizen—curiosity, contact, and a sense of shared responsibility beyond one’s own borders—and speaking English today is all about connection.
This report investigates how and where English proficiency is developing around the world. To create the 2020 edition of the EF English Proficiency Index, we have analyzed the results of 2.2 million adults who took our English tests in 2019.
Europe has the highest English proficiency of any region by a wide margin—even more so if only EU and Schengen Area countries are included in the regional average. This success reflects decades of effort by national education ministries and the EU itself to promote multilingualism. Fast and easy communication strengthens ties between Europeans, as does student exchange, travel, and transnational work. Even as growing nationalism challenges the EU project, the opposing forces of European cohesion appear robust.
Learn more about this topic by reading on EF.
After reading “Ranking Countries by English Skills” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.