EF English Proficiency Index by Country 2024

Education First (EF), the creator of the EF Standard English Test (SET), calculated the English proficiency of citizens from 111 countries. Even in non-English speaking countries, proficiency in English opens the doors to international business or education.

How EF Calculated English Proficiency

As an administrator of the free globally available SET, EF has unique access to data about the English skills of people from around the world. For the 2022 English Proficiency Index, EF used the test results 2021 of 2.1 million test takers from 111 countries. Additionally, EF compared results from tests in 2021 to those from previous years to evaluate changes in English learning over time.

What a High EF English Proficiency Index Score Correlates to

EF found several correlations between demographics and high SET scores in national economies and society.

Economically, countries that had higher English proficiency correlated positively with human capital, global innovation, talent competitiveness, and productivity.

Socially, higher English proficiency in countries connected to lower gender gaps, better scores on the environmental performance index, higher global freedom scores, and more social mobility.

Limitations of the EF English Proficiency Index

As with all studies, the EF English Proficiency Index does have limitations. First, the results come from people who voluntarily take the SET. People who don't have any English skills or interest in finding out their level of proficiency may not take the test. Consequently, this index does not have information for those people.

Additionally, as a free test administered online via computer or mobile device, the SET prevents people who don't have internet access from taking the test.

Finally, test takers skew to younger demographics with 97% of them under 60 and a median age of 25. Adults over 60 generally do not have representation in the study because most people in that age group did not take the test.

Therefore, the EF English Proficiency Index results do not reflect the English capacity of all people within a country. Instead, this index provides an overall idea of the popularity of English globally.

Countries with the Highest EF English Proficiency Index Scores

Thirteen countries had very high English Proficiency Index scores of 600 or greater. The country with the highest score was the Netherlands with a 661. The other top five scoring countries were Singapore, Austria, Norway, and Denmark.

Countries with the Lowest EF English Proficiency Index Scores

Twenty-four nations ranked very low per the index, with scores of 449 or lower. The country that had the lowest score was Laos with a score of 364. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Libya, and Rwanda were the other four countries in the bottom five on the English Proficiency Index.