Ranked: Asia Pacific Countries in English Proficiency Index 2018

 The 2018 global English Proficiency Index has been announced by EF Education First following a survey of 1.3 million people in 88 countries and territories which do not use English as their mother tongue. The 8th edition of the EF English Proficiency Index attempted to rank countries by the average level of English language skills among those adults who took the EF test.

 The EF EPI eighth edition was calculated using test data from 1.3 million test takers in 2018. The test takers were self-selected and no demographic information was collected on them. The tests are used by the company for marketing and placement purposes. 85 countries and 3 territories appear in the eighth edition of the index. In order to be included, a country was required to have at least 400 test takers.

“In 2018, the English language is as important as it has ever been. It is the de facto language of communication for all types of international exchange—goods, services, and ideas,” the report reads.

 In this year’s ranking, the top 10 countries with “very high proficiency” in English are Sweden, the Netherlands, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, South Africa (which though included by the company in its list of non-English-speaking countries, has English as one of its 11 official languages), Luxembourg, Finland, Slovenia, Germany, Belgium and Austria.

“Scandinavians on the whole have remarkably high levels of English, thanks to strong education systems, daily exposure to English in the media, and an entrenched culture of internationalism.”

Libya is ranked at the bottom with a score of 39.64 behind Iraq (40.8), Uzbekistan (42.5), Cambodia (42.8) and Afghanistan (43.6). 

And this is the ranking for Asia Pacific countries