Of the Eurozone’s four largest economies, only Germany speaks English well. France, Spain, and Italy lag behind nearly every other member state – a finding that has been consistent across previous editions of the EF EPI. Of the three, only France has made modest gains over the past two years. According to a recent government report, at the age of 15, only a quarter of French children are able to string together a few sentences in “more or less correct” English. Another round of education reforms was announced this year.

Our data indicates that English proficiency in Spain has been declining since 2014. According to the latest polling by CIS, a Spanish public research institute, 60% of adults say they speak no English at all. A vast project to convert public primary and secondary schools into bilingual schools, in which up to 30% of the curriculum is taught in English, has so far had no measurable effect on adult English proficiency.

The gap in English proficiency is particularly concerning because both Italy and Spain suffer from high rates of unemployment, particularly among the young, and could desperately use the new economic opportunities that faster, smoother communications with the rest of Europe would bring.