Can you actually talk to them? Global English Proficiency Map

EF English Proficiency Index scores mapped across 130 countries, plus native-English benchmarks.

World choropleth map showing English proficiency levels across 123 countries and native English markets

Coloured by EF EPI 2025 bands: Blue = Native-majority, Dark Green = Very High (≥600), Light Green = High (550–599), Amber = Moderate (500–549), Orange = Low (450–499), Red = Very Low (<450).

Download the map (PNG)

What the chart says

Popular hotspots sit at opposite extremes. The Philippines (570) and Argentina (575) score High, while Thailand (416), Mexico (445) and Colombia (475) fall into the Low or Very Low bands.
Language barriers change the actual dating dynamic. In low-proficiency markets, foreigners who do not speak the local language are disproportionately concentrated in tourist bubbles or translation-app interactions.

All 130

The full country-level index across all 130 markets, ordered by proficiency band and score.

#	Country	ISO	EF EPI band	EF EPI score	Global rank	Carried on site
1	Australia	AUS	Native-majority	—	—	Yes
2	Canada	CAN	Native-majority	—	—	Yes
3	United Kingdom	GBR	Native-majority	—	—	Yes
4	Ireland	IRL	Native-majority	—	—	Yes
5	New Zealand	NZL	Native-majority	—	—	Yes
6	Singapore	SGP	Native-majority	—	—	Yes
7	United States	USA	Native-majority	—	—	Yes
8	Netherlands	NLD	Very High	624	#1 of 123	Yes
9	Croatia	HRV	Very High	617	#2 of 123	Yes
10	Austria	AUT	Very High	616	#3 of 123	Yes
11	Germany	DEU	Very High	615	#4 of 123	Yes
12	Norway	NOR	Very High	613	#5 of 123	Yes
13	Portugal	PRT	Very High	612	#6 of 123	Yes
14	Denmark	DNK	Very High	611	#7 of 123	Yes
15	Sweden	SWE	Very High	609	#8 of 123	Yes
16	Belgium	BEL	Very High	608	#9 of 123	Yes
17	Slovakia	SVK	Very High	606	#10 of 123	Yes
18	Romania	ROU	Very High	605	#11 of 123	Yes
19	Finland	FIN	Very High	603	#12 of 123	Yes
20	South Africa	ZAF	Very High	602	#13 of 123	Yes
21	Zimbabwe	ZWE	Very High	602	#13 of 123	Yes
22	Poland	POL	Very High	600	#15 of 123	Yes
23	Latvia	LVA	High	599	#16 of 123	Yes
24	Macedonia	MKD	High	595	#17 of 123	Yes
25	Bulgaria	BGR	High	594	#18 of 123	Yes
26	Kenya	KEN	High	593	#19 of 123	Yes
27	Greece	GRC	High	592	#20 of 123	Yes
28	BIH	BIH	High	591	#21 of 123	Yes
29	Hungary	HUN	High	590	#22 of 123	Yes
30	Czechia	CZE	High	582	#23 of 123	Yes
31	Malaysia	MYS	High	581	#24 of 123	Yes
32	Serbia	SRB	High	579	#25 of 123	Yes
33	Argentina	ARG	High	575	#26 of 123	Yes
34	Zambia	ZMB	High	573	#27 of 123	Yes
35	Nigeria	NGA	High	569	#28 of 123	Yes
36	Philippines	PHL	High	569	#28 of 123	Yes
37	Switzerland	CHE	High	564	#30 of 123	Yes
38	Estonia	EST	High	561	#31 of 123	Yes
39	Honduras	HND	High	553	#32 of 123	Yes
40	Lithuania	LTU	Moderate	543	#33 of 123	Yes
41	Uruguay	URY	Moderate	542	#34 of 123	Yes
42	Georgia	GEO	Moderate	541	#35 of 123	Yes
43	Spain	ESP	Moderate	540	#36 of 123	Yes
44	Ghana	GHA	Moderate	540	#36 of 123	Yes
45	France	FRA	Moderate	539	#38 of 123	Yes
46	HKG	HKG	Moderate	538	#39 of 123	No
47	Cyprus	CYP	Moderate	537	#40 of 123	Yes
48	Belarus	BLR	Moderate	533	#41 of 123	Yes
49	Albania	ALB	Moderate	532	#42 of 123	Yes
50	Moldova	MDA	Moderate	531	#43 of 123	Yes
51	Paraguay	PRY	Moderate	531	#43 of 123	Yes
52	Ukraine	UKR	Moderate	526	#45 of 123	No
53	Israel	ISR	Moderate	524	#46 of 123	No
54	El Salvador	SLV	Moderate	523	#47 of 123	Yes
55	South Korea	KOR	Moderate	522	#48 of 123	Yes
56	Bolivia	BOL	Moderate	521	#49 of 123	Yes
57	Russia	RUS	Moderate	521	#49 of 123	Yes
58	Venezuela	VEN	Moderate	520	#51 of 123	Yes
59	Peru	PER	Moderate	519	#52 of 123	Yes
60	Uganda	UGA	Moderate	518	#53 of 123	Yes
61	Chile	CHL	Moderate	517	#54 of 123	Yes
62	Costa Rica	CRI	Moderate	516	#55 of 123	Yes
63	Armenia	ARM	Moderate	515	#56 of 123	Yes
64	Cuba	CUB	Moderate	515	#56 of 123	Yes
65	Nepal	NPL	Moderate	514	#58 of 123	Yes
66	Italy	ITA	Moderate	513	#59 of 123	Yes
67	Nicaragua	NIC	Moderate	512	#60 of 123	Yes
68	Guatemala	GTM	Moderate	510	#61 of 123	Yes
69	Bangladesh	BGD	Moderate	506	#62 of 123	Yes
70	Dominican Rep.	DOM	Moderate	503	#63 of 123	Yes
71	Vietnam	VNM	Moderate	500	#64 of 123	Yes
72	Ethiopia	ETH	Low	499	#65 of 123	Yes
73	Tunisia	TUN	Low	498	#66 of 123	No
74	Pakistan	PAK	Low	493	#67 of 123	Yes
75	Iran	IRN	Low	492	#68 of 123	Yes
76	Morocco	MAR	Low	492	#68 of 123	Yes
77	Panama	PAN	Low	491	#70 of 123	Yes
78	Turkey	TUR	Low	488	#71 of 123	Yes
79	United Arab Emirates	ARE	Low	487	#72 of 123	Yes
80	Sri Lanka	LKA	Low	486	#73 of 123	Yes
81	India	IND	Low	484	#74 of 123	Yes
82	Brazil	BRA	Low	482	#75 of 123	Yes
83	Colombia	COL	Low	480	#76 of 123	Yes
84	Tanzania	TZA	Low	479	#77 of 123	Yes
85	Lebanon	LBN	Low	477	#78 of 123	Yes
86	Bhutan	BTN	Low	473	#79 of 123	Yes
87	Indonesia	IDN	Low	471	#80 of 123	Yes
88	Qatar	QAT	Low	469	#81 of 123	No
89	Algeria	DZA	Low	468	#82 of 123	No
90	Ecuador	ECU	Low	466	#83 of 123	Yes
91	Mozambique	MOZ	Low	465	#84 of 123	No
92	Malawi	MWI	Low	465	#84 of 123	No
93	China	CHN	Low	464	#86 of 123	Yes
94	PSE	PSE	Low	463	#87 of 123	No
95	Laos	LAO	Low	461	#88 of 123	Yes
96	Egypt	EGY	Low	459	#89 of 123	Yes
97	Madagascar	MDG	Low	457	#90 of 123	No
98	Syria	SYR	Low	456	#91 of 123	No
99	Turkmenistan	TKM	Low	456	#91 of 123	No
100	Kuwait	KWT	Low	455	#93 of 123	Yes
101	Azerbaijan	AZE	Low	454	#94 of 123	Yes
102	Mongolia	MNG	Very Low	447	#95 of 123	Yes
103	Afghanistan	AFG	Very Low	446	#96 of 123	No
104	Japan	JPN	Very Low	446	#96 of 123	Yes
105	Cameroon	CMR	Very Low	445	#98 of 123	No
106	Haiti	HTI	Very Low	444	#99 of 123	No
107	Myanmar	MMR	Very Low	444	#99 of 123	Yes
108	Kyrgyzstan	KGZ	Very Low	443	#101 of 123	Yes
109	Senegal	SEN	Very Low	442	#102 of 123	Yes
110	Mexico	MEX	Very Low	440	#103 of 123	Yes
111	Uzbekistan	UZB	Very Low	439	#104 of 123	Yes
112	Jordan	JOR	Very Low	426	#105 of 123	Yes
113	Sudan	SDN	Very Low	421	#106 of 123	No
114	Kazakhstan	KAZ	Very Low	417	#107 of 123	Yes
115	Rwanda	RWA	Very Low	417	#107 of 123	Yes
116	Angola	AGO	Very Low	413	#109 of 123	No
117	Tajikistan	TJK	Very Low	409	#110 of 123	No
118	Mali	MLI	Very Low	408	#111 of 123	No
119	Oman	OMN	Very Low	407	#112 of 123	No
120	Benin	BEN	Very Low	406	#113 of 123	No
121	Iraq	IRQ	Very Low	406	#113 of 123	No
122	Saudi Arabia	SAU	Very Low	404	#115 of 123	No
123	Thailand	THA	Very Low	402	#116 of 123	Yes
124	Yemen	YEM	Very Low	402	#116 of 123	No
125	Dem. Rep. Congo	COD	Very Low	400	#118 of 123	No
126	SOM	SOM	Very Low	399	#119 of 123	No
127	Togo	TGO	Very Low	397	#120 of 123	No
128	Libya	LBY	Very Low	395	#121 of 123	No
129	Côte d'Ivoire	CIV	Very Low	393	#122 of 123	Yes
130	Cambodia	KHM	Very Low	390	#123 of 123	Yes

EF EPI is an adult test-taker index (2.2M participants). Native-English countries (USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand) are excluded from the test and classified as Native-majority.

Where this is wrong

EF EPI test-takers are self-selected. Participants choose to take an online English test, skewing the sample towards younger, more urban, and educated demographics.
City-level variation exists. Capital cities (e.g. Bangkok, Tokyo, Bogotá) generally have higher English proficiency than provincial regions.

Sources

EF English Proficiency Index 2025 (ef.com/epi). Native-English benchmarks identified via national census language shares.

City-level language breakdown, sex ratios and safety indices are on the research desk.

More charts

Filter destinations by English score + ratio on the Research Desk →

Cross-reference language proficiency against living cost and sex ratio across 200+ cities.

The per-market deep-dives — 13 tabs of cost, visa, tax, safety and sub-national ratio for one country — are behind the Pro gate. Everything on this page is not.