Analytics, Education and Science, EU – Baltic States

English is the foreign language which most EU citizens feel their skills are strongest in, while residents of Latvia, Lithuania and Poland indicated that Russian is their strongest foreign language. The strongest foreign language among the British is French, while Slovaks indicated that they have the best abilities in Czech, writes LETA.

54.7% of Latvian respondents rated their knowledge of their first foreign language, in this case Russian, as very good. 24.7% of those polled rated their skills as good, while 15.2% indicated they had basic knowledge.

In Lithuania, 41.6% of respondents indicated they have an expert knowledge of Russian, the fourth highest level of foreign language knowledge in the EU. A further 28.1% have a good command of the language, while 26.6% have basic knowledge.

Estonians indicated that English was their strongest foreign language, in contrast with previous years where Russian was better known.

28% of Estonian respondents have a very good knowledge of English, while 33.3% have good knowledge and 25.1% have basic knowledge.

After Latvia, second place in the rankings was held by Slovenia, where 45.4% of respondents indicated an expert knowledge of English. Third place was held by Slovakia, where 44.3% of respondents indicated very good abilities in Czech.

The weakest foreign language abilities were noted in France, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, the U.K. and the Czech Republic, where less than 10% of respondents answered that they had expert knowledge of their first foreign language.

Across the EU as a whole, 30% of adults aged 25-64 speak a foreign language well or very well.