Study: Ukraine one of Europe’s worst countries at speaking English

Ukraine is one of the worst countries in Europe in terms of English abilities, coming in at 43^rd place out of 88 countries and in 28^th place out of 32 European countries in a ranking of English proficiency.

Ukraine did however improve its standing compared to last year, by four positions, gaining 52.86 points in total in the annual ranking, which is published by Sweden-based international education company EF Education First.

EF has published its ranking, comparing English proficiency in non-English speaking countries, every year since 2011. The ranking is based on an online survey taken by 1.3 million people in 2018. The study takes into account the presence of English language in the workplace, and analyzes English proficiency among employees and senior staff members.

The top 10 countries with the best English according to EF are Sweden, the Netherlands, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, South Africa, Luxembourg, Finland, Slovenia and Germany.

With its slight improvement this year, Ukraine returned to the average category. For the previous two years it was labeled as a country with low English proficiency, lagging behind Bangladesh and Vietnam in 2017. The country is still one of the worst in Europe, with neighboring Poland (13^th), Romania (16^th), Belarus (38^th) and Russia (42^nd) having higher English proficiency.

Kyiv, on the other hand, has a total score of 57.01, ranking it higher than Tokyo, Moscow and Rome. Capitals, the report states, are typically the most English-proficient cities within their countries.

The only European countries behind Ukraine are Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.