According to Eurostat, two thirds of working age adults in the EU28 stated that they knew at least one foreign language in 2011. 83 percent of pupils at primary and lower secondary level and 94 percent of those in upper secondary level general programmes were studying English.
An impressive 99 percent of Luxembourgers stated that they knew at least one foreign language, primarily German, thanks to the country’s trilingual education system and frontiers with France, Belgium and Germany. Even though French, German and Luxembourgish are the country’s official languages, French and German are counted as foreign languages for the purpose of education statistics.
Lithuania and Latvia came second and third where 97 and 95 percent of the population stated that they know at least one foreign language respectively. Russian is widely spoken throughout the Baltic states – 80 percent of Lithuanians can speak Russian according to a Eurobarometer survey conducted in 2005.
Among other reasons, the sheer complexity of the European linguistic landscape means that data is not available for all countries. In Belgium, French is considered a foreign language in the Flemish community and Dutch is considered a foreign language in the French community. In Ireland for example, Irish is studied at primary and secondary schools – Irish and English are the official languages in the country.
Related Infographics
FAQ
- The Statista "Chart of the Day", made available under the Creative Commons License CC BY-ND 3.0, may be used and displayed without charge by all commercial and non-commercial websites. Use is, however, only permitted with proper attribution to Statista. When publishing one of these graphics, please include a backlink to the respective infographic URL. More Information
- The Statista "Chart of the Day" currently focuses on two sectors: "Media and Technology", updated daily and featuring the latest statistics from the media, internet, telecommunications and consumer electronics industries; and "Economy and Society", which current data from the United States and around the world relating to economic and political issues as well as sports and entertainment.
- For individual content and infographics in your Corporate Design, please visit our agency website www.statista.design
Any more questions?
Get in touch with us quickly and easily.
We are happy to help!
Do you still have questions?
Feel free to contact us anytime using our contact form or visit our FAQ page.
Your contact to the Infographics Newsroom
Statista Content & Design
Need infographics, animated videos, presentations, data research or social media charts?