Ask anyone who has backpacked through Europe without a phrasebook, and they will tell you the same thing: somewhere along the way, the language barrier simply stopped existing. Order coffee, ask for directions, chat with a stranger at a bus stop, it all just works in English, even though nobody around you grew up speaking it. That is not a fluke of tourism-friendly phrasing. It is the result of decades of deliberate education policy, media habits, and economic pressure, and the latest global data shows exactly where this phenomenon is strongest.
Netherlands: the reigning number one
The Netherlands has held the top spot on the EF English Proficiency Index 2025 edition, which was calculated using test data from 2.2 million test takers in 2024, with the Netherlands scoring 624 points and a “Very high proficiency” rating. That is not a one-year fluke either. The latest EF English Proficiency Index ranked the Netherlands first among 123 non-English-speaking countries in English proficiency.
Ask around Amsterdam or Rotterdam and the numbers on paper start to feel almost conservative. In the Netherlands, English can be spoken by the vast majority of the population, with estimates of English proficiency reaching 90 to 97 percent of the Dutch population. Part of the explanation is cultural rather than academic. Contributing factors for the high degree of English fluency include the similarity of the two languages, the country’s small size, dependence on international trade, and the use of subtitles for foreign languages on television, rather than audio dubbing.
Croatia: the surprise climber
Few people expect a small Balkan nation with a Slavic mother tongue to challenge the Nordic giants of English fluency, yet Croatia has done exactly that. According to the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, released in November, Croatia ranked second worldwide among 123 non-English-speaking countries, trailing only the Netherlands and outperforming traditional Northern European strongholds such as Germany and Norway. The jump was not gradual either. Croatia’s rise was particularly notable, jumping nine places from eleventh the previous year.
Television habits explain a lot of this. Foreign films and television programs in Croatia are broadcast almost exclusively with subtitles rather than dubbing, except for children’s content, and this long-standing practice has immersed generations in authentic English pronunciation and intonation from an early age. A dubbing experiment in 2011 actually backfired: attempts at dubbing have largely failed, since in 2011 a Croatian broadcaster experimented with dubbing a popular U.S. TV series, only to face public backlash and plunging ratings, with viewers demanding a return to subtitles. Add tourism to the mix, since most people in Croatia, especially the young, speak or understand English, with hairdressers, mechanics and service workers also communicating comfortably in it, and the picture of a genuinely English-fluent society comes into focus.
Austria: quiet consistency at the top
Austria rarely gets the same headlines as its Nordic rivals, but it has been sitting near the very top of the rankings for years without much fuss. Austria’s success reflects a broader Central European pattern of strong public education combined with heavy cross-border business exposure, with its economy deeply tied to Germany and other EU trading partners, which keeps English relevant in professional settings. Vienna plays an outsized role here too.
Vienna’s role as a hub for international organizations, including several United Nations agencies, means residents regularly interact with English speakers from around the world, and that daily exposure likely reinforces what students learn in the classroom. On top of that, Austrian universities have expanded English-taught programs over the past decade, drawing students from across Europe and reinforcing the country’s already strong foundation. The combination of classroom rigor and everyday international contact has made Austria one of the most reliably fluent countries in the entire index.
Germany: the biggest mover in Europe
Germany’s climb up the 2025 rankings surprised even seasoned observers of the index, given the country’s size. The Netherlands remains number one, followed by Croatia and Austria, while Germany climbed to fourth place with one of the biggest gains in Europe. That is a meaningful shift for a nation of over eighty million people, where language habits tend to change slowly.
The driving force seems to be economic necessity as much as classroom instruction. Germany’s economy is deeply intertwined with international trade, and English functions as the working language in countless boardrooms, universities, and tech startups across the country. Universities have leaned into this trend deliberately, since German universities increasingly offer programs taught entirely in English to attract international students and prepare domestic students for global careers. For a country long associated with formal, textbook German instruction, this represents a genuine cultural shift toward treating English as a practical everyday tool.
Norway: Nordic strength without the spotlight
Norway often gets overlooked when people picture the great Scandinavian English speakers, overshadowed by Sweden or Denmark in casual conversation. Yet the numbers tell a different story. Norway often gets overshadowed by Sweden and Denmark when people picture strong English-speaking Scandinavians, yet its 2025 score of 613 places it fifth globally, ahead of both its neighbors.
Television is again a major part of the explanation. Norwegian television and film rarely dub foreign content, meaning children grow up hearing natural spoken English from a young age through cartoons, movies, and streaming services, and in the 2024 edition of the index, Norway actually held second place overall, just behind the Netherlands. Combine that with an education system that starts English instruction early, and it is easy to see why Norwegians so consistently rank near the very top without ever seeming to make a big deal about it.
Portugal: southern Europe’s quiet success story
For a long time, southern Europe lagged behind its northern neighbors in English fluency rankings, and Portugal was often lumped in with that broader trend. That has changed dramatically in recent years. Portugal has emerged as one of the stronger English-speaking nations in southern Europe, a region that historically lagged behind its northern neighbors, and by 2025 it had cemented that reputation with a genuinely high score.
Portugal rounds out the top group with a 2025 score of 612, placing it firmly in the very high proficiency band, a reflection of its long-term investment in education and its commitment to global connectivity. Lisbon in particular has become a symbol of this shift, since Lisbon has become something of a case study in how a capital city can transform its language profile, tying with Zagreb for the top spot in the EF EPI Capital City Scores. Tech companies, digital nomads, and a booming tourism sector have all played a part in accelerating that transformation.
Denmark: the Nordic frontrunner
Denmark rounds out this group of seven, and like its Scandinavian neighbors, it treats subtitled television as an unofficial language class. Danish television, much like its Scandinavian neighbors, rarely dubs foreign content, which means children grow up hearing English regularly outside the classroom, and Copenhagen functions as an international business center where English is often the default language in meetings, university courses, and even government communications.
Within the Nordic bloc, Denmark has actually managed to edge out its rivals in some recent rankings. Denmark leads the Nordic region, edging out Sweden and Norway by a fraction of a point in the 2025 index, with differences between Nordic countries small but Denmark’s consistent edge placing it at the top that year. Early and sustained investment in language education, paired with that same subtitle culture found across the region, has made English feel less like a foreign subject and more like a second mother tongue for many young Danes.
