These 12 countries rank the highest for English skills

English occupies an increasingly important place in many people’s lives, whether through social networks, music, films and TV shows, or professional jargon. However, the learning of the language remains highly variable globally, and even regionally, as a new study on English proficiency among countries where the language is spoken reveals.

Education First (EF), a company specialising in foreign language learning, asked 2.2 million people in 113 countries to take an English language test. The average age of the participants was 28, and 55% were women.

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Countries with “very high proficiency” in English

Twelve countries achieved high scores, putting them in the “very high proficiency” category. The Netherlands, Singapore and Austria make up the top three. Most of the nations at the top of EF’s ranking are in Europe, with the exception of Singapore (no. 2) and South Africa (no. 9). This is hardly surprising, given that these two territories were long part of the British Empire.

Europe is the continent where English is best spoken, written and understood in this survey, although there are significant differences between countries. Belgium is in seventh place, for example, while Spain and Italy occupy joint 35th place. France is tied with Cuba for 43rd place, putting both countries in the “moderate proficiency” category for English skills.

Deep-dive into the English proficiency report; gender-gap widens

In addition, some of the northern European countries with the highest skill levels exhibit a gap in proficiency of over 40 points in favour of men. But this phenomenon extends beyond Europe. Proficiency levels between genders are disparate in many parts of the world, including Iran, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka.

Interestingly, these differences are more marked among 18-25 year olds than among working adults, suggesting that they are generated by education systems themselves, or are linked to a societal issue that schools are failing to address.

Yet the EF report underlines just how important a good knowledge and understanding of English is these days, especially in the professional sphere. Mastery of English is a vital skill in the job market, whatever the sector. For many professionals, an insufficient level of proficiency is a major obstacle to career advancement. It can also be detrimental to their productivity, given that the vast majority of documents and other sources of information available online are written in English.

If you’re not comfortable with your level of English, it’s possible to make progress at any age. But you’ll need to be dedicated and hard-working to see real results. In fact, an adult needs around 150 hours of teaching and practice to progress one level on the CEFR scale — an international standard for evaluating language skills. Fortunately, the internet is brimming with resources to help anyone who’s motivated to brush up on their English.

(This story is published via AFP Relaxnews)

(Hero image: courtesy Prostock-Studio/Getty Images; Feature image: courtesy Romain Vignes/Unsplash)