World map representing different levels of English proficiency in the world in 2024:
600 and above (Very high)
599 – 550 (High)
549 – 500 (Moderate)
499 – 450 (Low)
Below 450 (Very low)
No data or English is official or de-facto national language
The EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) attempts to rank countries by the equity of English language skills amongst those adults who took the EF test.[2] It is the product of EF Education First, an international education company, and draws its conclusions from data collected via English tests available for free over the internet.[3][4] The index is an online survey first published in 2011[5] based on test data from 1.7 million test takers.[6] The most recent edition was released in November 2023.[7][8]
The EF EPI 2024 edition was calculated using test data from 2.1 million test takers in 2023. The test takers were self-selected. 116 countries and territories appear in this edition of the index. In order to be included, a country was required to have at least 400 test takers.[9]
Report
The report is composed of a country ranking table, several pages of analysis with graphs correlating other economic and social factors with English proficiency, and analysis of each region or continent. The 2023 report includes English proficiency levels by gender, age group, and region, within countries, and some English proficiency scores by city. The website displays portions of the report and has analysis of English skills in many countries and territories.[9]
The European Commission performed a language survey, SurveyLang, which tested a representative sample of 15-year-old European students on their foreign language skills. The report and data sets were released for 13 European countries in June 2012.[13]
Criticisms
The EF English Proficiency Index has been the subject of criticism in literature. From the point of view of methodology, it suffers from self-selection bias. Instead of testing the level of English proficiency in the population, it tests the level of English of those who self-select. [14] Moreover, the countries at the top of the rankings are often those whose official languages are gradually subject to 'domain loss' in favour of English, because they are being used less and less in scientific research, academic teaching and multinational corporations.[15] The selection bias is noted but not mitigated in EF's analysis.[16]
↑ Archived 28 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine . Michele Gazzola & Daniele Mazzacani, "Il valore economico del plurilinguismo". Retrieved on 2023-01-17.
↑ Archived 8 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine . "English takes over at Dutch universities, just 40% of courses still in Dutch", DutchNews.nl. Retrieved on 2016-08-26.
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