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60% of lower secondary level pupils studied more than one #ForeignLanguage in 2015

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Screen Shot 2017-02-23 at 1.37.55 PM copyLearning a foreign language at school is very common in the European Union (EU), with more than 17 million lower secondary school pupils (or 98.6% of all pupils at this education level) studying at least one foreign language in 2015. Among them, more than 10 million (58.8%) were studying two foreign languages or more.

English was by far the most popular language at lower secondary level, studied by nearly 17 million pupils (97.3%). French (5 million or 33.8%) came second, followed by German (3 million or 23.1%) and Spanish (2 million or 13.6%).

These data are issued by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Currently there are 24 official languages recognised within the EU. In addition there are regional languages, minority languages, and languages spoken by migrant populations. It should also be noted that several EU Member States have more than one official language.

In 2015, all or nearly all lower secondary school pupils learnt at least two foreign languages in Luxembourg (100%), Finland (98.4%), Italy (95.8%), Estonia (95.4%) and Romania (95.2%). In contrast, fewer than 10% of pupils were studying two or more languages in Hungary (6.0%) and Austria (8.8%).

English, French and German: top 3 foreign languages studied in the EU
English is by far the main foreign language studied during lower secondary education in the vast majority of member states. In particular, all pupils attend English classes in Denmark, Malta and Sweden.

French is one of the two main foreign languages studied by all pupils in Luxembourg and is also the top foreign language studied in Ireland (by 60.4% of pupils) and Belgium (52.8%). In addition, French is the second most popular foreign language studied at lower secondary level in nine Member States, with the highest shares of learners recorded in Cyprus (89.2%), Romania (83.6%), Portugal (66.6%), Italy (65.4%) and the Netherlands (55.6%).

Besides being studied by all pupils in Luxembourg, German ranks second in eight Member States, with the highest shares being registered in Denmark (73.6%), Poland (69.2%) and Slovakia (53.6%). Learning Spanish is notably popular in Sweden (43.7%) and France (39.0%), while Russian, the only commonly studied non-EU language, came second in the three Baltic States – Lithuania (66.2%), Estonia (63.6%) and Latvia (59.7%) – as well as in Bulgaria (16.9%).

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Foreign language learning at lower secondary level (% of pupils), 2015

Number of pupils (in 1000)

Learning foreign language

of which:

Most common foreign language

Second most common foreign language

1 language

2 or more languages

EU*

17 635.7

98.6

39.8

58.8

English

97.3

French

33.8

Belgium

248.1

99.6

72.3

27.3

French**

52.8

English

47.8

Bulgaria

215.2

99.8

83.3

16.5

English

87.0

Russian

16.9

Czech Republic

370.4

98.1

33.2

64.9

English

97.3

German

46.4

Denmark***

242.4

100.0

17.2

82.8

English

100.0

German

73.6

Germany

4 543.3

97.9

63.4

34.5

English

:

French

24.0

Estonia

35.7

98.5

3.1

95.4

English

96.5

Russian

63.6

Ireland

183.7

88.3

75.6

12.7

French

60.4

German

23.9

Greece***

314.7

100.0

6.0

94.0

English

98.1

French

48.5

Spain

1 437.3

99.7

53.9

45.8

English

99.3

French

42.5

France

3 365.2

99.7

43.0

56.7

English

98.8

Spanish

39.0

Croatia

159.9

99.8

43.3

56.5

English

97.3

German

45.6

Italy

1 772.8

97.6

1.8

95.8

English

98.1

French

65.4

Cyprus

27.1

98.0

10.0

88.0

English

98.7

French

89.2

Latvia

55.3

98.5

25.7

72.8

English

97.4

Russian

59.7

Lithuania

179.4

98.3

18.2

80.1

English

97.3

Russian

66.2

Luxembourg

17.9

100.0

0.0

100.0

German**

100.0

French**

100.0

Hungary

385.3

96.5

90.5

6.0

English

70.0

German

30.0

Malta

12.4

100.0

7.1

92.9

English**

100.0

Italian

57.2

Netherlands

764.5

97.8

23.9

73.9

English

94.0

French

55.6

Austria

319.9

100.0

91.2

8.8

English

99.9

French

4.9

Poland

1 080.7

98.5

4.5

94.0

English

97.7

German

69.2

Portugal

363.6

95.9

9.1

86.8

English

93.9

French

66.6

Romania

774.7

100.0

4.8

95.2

English

99.5

French

83.6

Slovenia

53.5

98.4

46.9

51.5

English

99.5

German

44.8

Slovakia

239.5

97.8

19.8

78.0

English

96.5

German

53.6

Finland

175.7

99.5

1.1

98.4

English

99.4

Swedish**

92.2

Sweden

297.3

100.0

22.1

77.9

English

100.0

Spanish

43.7

United Kingdom

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

Iceland

12.7

98.5

0.5

98.0

English

99.5

Danish

96.9

Liechtenstein

1.5

100.0

0.0

100.0

English

100.0

French

100.0

Norway

188.1

100.0

28.0

72.0

English

100.0

Spanish

32.4

FYR of Macedonia

84.1

100.0

0.4

99.6

English

100.0

German

49.2

* Data for the EU exclude the United Kingdom and are based on 2014 data for Denmark and Greece. ** An official language of the country, see country notes.
*** 2014 data : Data not available
The source datasets can be found here and here.

Geographical information

The European Union (EU) includes Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

In this News Release, the EU aggregates exclude the United Kingdom for which data are not available.

Methods and definitions

The main source of data is the Eurostat specific questionnaire on foreign language learning closely linked to the UOE (UNESCO, OECD and Eurostat) data collection on education statistics.

Lower secondary education (International Standard Classification of Education level 2) continues the basic programmes of the primary level, although teaching is typically more subject-focused. Most often, pupils enter lower secondary education at the age of 11 or 12, and the end of this level coincides with the end of compulsory education.

Country notes

Belgium: the official state languages are Dutch, French and German; notably French is considered as a foreign language in the Belgian Flemish Community and Flemish (Dutch) is considered as a foreign language in the Belgian French Community. The most popular foreign language at lower secondary level in the Belgian French Community is Dutch (52.3% of pupils), and in the Belgian Flemish Community, it is French (99.0%).

Luxembourg: although the official languages are French, German and Luxembourgish, for the purpose of education statistics, French and German are counted as foreign languages.

Malta: English is an official language alongside Maltese, but for the purpose of education statistics, it is counted as a foreign language.

Finland: Swedish is an official language alongside Finnish, but for the purpose of education statistics, it is counted as a foreign language.

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