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The knowledge of English among adult non-native speakers in Belgium is declining for the second year in a row. Our country drops from sixth to seventh place, at 113. This was evident on Wednesday from the annual English Proficiency Index (EPI) of the international language education agency EF Education First (EF).
Source: BELGA
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Flemish people speak much better English than Walloons, with a very good command of the language in Flanders compared to an average in Wallonia. Ghent, Leuven and Antwerp score the best. Brussels is doing better than the Walloon cities, but worse than the Flemish ones.
If we look at the provinces, the top three consist of West Flanders, Antwerp and East Flanders. The Brussels Capital Region falls right in the middle between the north and the south. Namur scores the worst.
Just like last year, the Netherlands, Singapore and Austria are at the top of the ranking. Belgium ranks seventh worldwide and sixth in Europe. Congo dangles at the very bottom.
The index was calculated based on standardized language tests (EF SET) of 2.2 million non-native speakers from 113 countries and regions.
