Education
60% of lower secondary level pupils studied more than one #ForeignLanguage in 2015
Learning 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%).
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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