Five Charts That Show How 70 Countries Rank in their Proficiency of English.

Though the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark rank 68th, 90th and 112th, respectively, in population among the nations of the world, the same three countries rank a much higher (14th, 16th and 24th) among overseas source markets for inbound tourism to the United States. The three countries collectively have a population of 21.5 million, yet sent one-and-half million visitors to the USA in 2014, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO).

Perhaps the reason for the strength of the three small European nations has something to do with another ranking: Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark are number one, two and three in a ranking of English-speaking proficiency of the major nations of the world in which English is not the principal language of its residents—this according to figures from EF (Education First), a Swedish organization founded in 1965 by providing  immersion training in English) that operates in more than 100 nations worldwide, and has a travel division. Its English Proficiency Index has become the authoritative index for measuring the English speaking level of all nations. The data for its current edition was calculated using results from 910,000 test takers who completed two different EF English tests in 2014.

Overall Ranking of Countries by English Skills

Perhaps these results—which had Brazil, the world’s fifth most populous country with more than 205 million people, but with an EPI ranking of 41st out of 70 nations, had something to do with the announcement last May by the country’s largest tour operator, CVC, that it would start selling travel packages in which customers can choose to study in one of EF’s 44 schools in 16 countries. This announcement followed a Bloomberg news article in which CVC’s founder and chairman, billionaire Guilherme Paulus Jesus, said that his company wanted to increase the numbers of student age adults  who are English-speaking, explaining that “Brazilians will sacrifice everything to send their children to learn English abroad … It’s an investment.”

Following are EF’s regional breakdowns of nations, along with the English Proficiency Index for their populations.

Ranking of Countries by English Skills—Europe

Ranking of Countries by English Skills—Asia

Ranking of Countries by English Skills—Latin America

Ranking of Countries by English Skills—Middle East and North Africa

For more information, visit: www.ef.edu