Belgians awarded a very high proficiency score for their English skills
According to the latest report from the Education First English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), Belgium is ranked 11th place out of 88 countries and regions, despite a significant gap between Dutch and French speakers.
Belgium has therefore gained one place in this ranking compared to last year and is one of the 12 countries that received a “very high” proficiency score. Sweden topped the ranking, ahead of the Netherlands and Singapore, the first Asian country to make the podium for this ranking.
However, there is a disparity between our country’s regions. Although the Flemish obtained a lower result than last year (64.33 points compared with 65.45 in 2017), their score was significantly higher than that of French speakers (58.77 points). If the ranking was conducted by region, Wallonia would have been relegated to 23rd position. Admittedly, the gap is closing, but efforts are still needed to balance the language fluency across the country.
Among other European countries, France’s 35th position should be noted, with a “moderate” proficiency score for English. Our French neighbours are behind Spain (32nd) and Italy (34th). As for Germany, it achieved 10th place in the ranking. In order to establish this ranking, EF tested 1.3 million non-native, English-speaking adults, including 20,000 Belgians.
