The 64.5% of inhabitants between 25 and 64 years of age in the European Union (EU) speak at least one foreign language, according to figures recently provided by the European statistical office, Eurostat, corresponding to the year 2016.
The European country in which a higher percentage of its population masters at least one language other than its own is Sweden, with 96.6% of the inhabitants. They are followed by Denmark and Latvia (both with 95.7%), and then Lithuania (95.6%) and Luxembourg (94.5%).
Spain is among the countries that are below the European Union average in foreign language proficiency. 54.3% of Spaniards between 25 and 64 years of age speak a foreign language, surpassing only six countries.
The two countries with the lowest foreign language proficiency are the United Kingdom (34.6%) and Romania (35.8%), according to Eurostat data.
51.2% of the population of Luxembourg analyzed in this study masters at least three foreign languages. Finland also has a significant percentage of the population (44.9%) that masters three other languages, as does Norway (43.7%).
5.2% of Spaniards speak three foreign languages, 14.3% master two languages other than their mother tongue, and 34.8% speak one foreign language.
The following interactive graphic details all the data by country: