Europe foreign language stats by country

by Writersroom Boardwalk: Europe

Sweden closes out the list at 3.4%, and that's the floor of a 28-country Eurostat ranking on residents aged 25 to 64 who can't speak a foreign language. Work up from there and the numbers climb fast: Latvia and Denmark are tied at 4.2%, Lithuania at 4.5%, Norway at 7.9%, Finland at 8.0%, Switzerland at 8.3%, Estonia at 8.8%. Slovakia sits at 11.8%. Then the teens and twenties roll in. Netherlands 13.7%, Austria 13.8%, Slovenia 15.9%, Serbia 20.7%, Czechia 21.0%, Germany 21.3%, Belgium 21.5%, Croatia 26.8%, Portugal 31.0%, Poland 32.9%, Greece 33.5%, Italy 34.0%, France 39.9%. Spain lands at 45.8%, Ireland at 49.2%, Bulgaria at 50.4%, Hungary at 57.6%, Romania at 64.2%. The top of the table belongs to the United Kingdom, 65.4%. Rankings run highest to lowest, so the UK number is where the whole thing starts.