The Best Non-Native English Speakers and Where to Find Them

If you’re reading this article, odds are you’re an English speaker. But is it your first language or did you learn it as a second one? As one of the most common languages in the world, English can guarantee you can get by pretty much anywhere. But did you know that most English speakers actually learn it as a second language?

While many schools around the world teach English as a second language, they do so with varying levels of success. Which countries produce the most fluent non-native English speakers? The EF (Education First) organization has done the research and now has an answer.

Taking the podium first with the highest rank are northern European countries headed by The Netherlands. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway are not too far behind and also produce fluent, proficient English speakers very successfully. The bottom of the chart finds the least fluent English speakers in Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, with the lowest proficiency score.

Before you book your next vacation based on the English speakers you’ll be surrounded by, there’s something you should know. The research had a total of 2.3 volunteers living in 100 countries answering an online test. These factors greatly affect the results, tilting them in one way or another. This means that countries with a slow internet connection (the poor souls!) or fewer volunteers (people have lives outside of EF studies, thank you very much!) could have skewed the results in some way. Who said science was conclusive anyway?