Where Are People Relying on Their Mother Tongue Alone?

Brits are the least likely of any national in Europe to be able to speak another language beyond their mother tongue, with nearly two thirds of the country’s respondents saying they could not use a second language in 2016.

According to data from Eurostat, other countries with over 50 percent of respondents who reported only speaking one language are Romania (64.2 percent) and Hungary (57.6 percent). However, Spain and France too have a higher share of respondents who cannot speak a second language than the European average of 35.4 percent. The Northern European countries of Norway, Denmark and Sweden are among the nations more proficient when it comes to language skills, all with under 10 percent of their countries’ respondents saying that they could only speak their mother tongue.

According to the newly published OECD Skills Outlook 2023: Skills for a Resilient Green and Digital Transition, one reason for the variation in language proficiency in Europe is due to the varying extent to which school systems offer children and teens the necessary learning opportunities to develop these skills.