Germany is home to the eighth best non-native English speakers around the world, according to this year’s EF English Proficiency Index - meaning that the federal republic has climbed two places since 2019!

The EF English Proficiency Index

The EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) is the world's largest annual ranking of countries and regions across the globe by English skills. The index, which has become the de facto world standard for measuring states’ English proficiency, ranks 100 countries globally, sorting them into four categories of proficiency: “very low”, “low”, “high” and “very high”.

The index is based on test data from more than two million English test takers around the world who took the EF Standard English Test - which is available for free online - or an EF English placement test.

Source: EF / Vimeo

Germany climbs rankings by two places since last year

Germany has placed in the "very high" category for English proficiency every year since 2018, and in 2019 came 10th overall. This year, the federal republic has outperformed itself, overtaking Luxembourg and South Africa to claim eighth place.

This is good news indeed because, as the EF EPI notes, countries with higher rates of English proficiency generally have higher incomes, better qualities of life, greater ease of doing business, and more innovation.

10 countries for best English proficiency

Here is the EF EPI’s top 10 countries, and their scores for English proficiency in 2020:

• 1. The Netherlands - 652
• 2. Denmark - 632
• 3. Finland - 631
• 4. Sweden - 625
• 5. Norway - 624
• 6. Austria - 623
• 7. Portugal - 618
• 8. Germany - 616
• 9. Belgium - 612
• 10. Singapore - 611

For full rankings and more information about the EF English Proficiency Index, please visit the EF website.