The tenth edition of the EF EPI report shows that Spain continues to lag behind other countries when it comes to a command of English.
The report (Education First English Proficiency Index) places Spain 34th in the world. The ranking is headed by the Netherlands, followed by Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Austria. Portugal is ranked seventh, Germany eighth, Belgium ninth and Singapore tenth. Of other European countries, Greece is eleventh, France 28th and Italy 30th.
One hundred non-English-speaking countries took part in the survey. This involved an online test. In the case of Spain, this was taken by some 100,000 people.
The director of Education First Spain, Xavier Martí, says that the Spanish government has not adopted strong policies to improve the level of English over the past decade. There has not been, for instance, investment in improving teachers' levels of English or in scholarships to study English overseas.
The test had a maximum of 800 points. The average for the whole of Spain was 543. At a regional level, Madrid scored the highest with 573, followed by Catalonia with 568. The Basque Country, Castile and León, Galicia, Aragon, Asturias and Navarre were all above the Spanish average. Cantabria matched the average, while below the average - in descending order - were Valencia, Andalusia, the Balearics, Castile-La Mancha, Murcia, the Canaries and Extremadura.
As for age groups, 31 to 40 scored the highest with 547.