A new study has revealed that although English levels in Spain are improving, they’re still lagging behind neighbouring countries.
English proficiency in Spain advancing at a slower pace than neighbouring countries, report shows
The level of English in Spain is developing positively albeit slowly and still behind some European countries, a new report has revealed.
According to the international report EF English Proficiency Index 2025, there’s also a gap between learning and its application in the workplace and professional sphere, something experts say holds back professional opportunities in the country.
Spain ranked 36th globally, putting it in the ‘Moderate Proficiency’ category and below countries such as Lithuania, Uruguay, and Georgia.
Among countries that topped the rankings were the Netherlands in 1st place, followed by Croatia, Austria, Germany, Norway, and neighbouring Portugal.
READ ALSO: Why do Portuguese people speak much better English than Spaniards?
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During the presentation of the report in Spain, EF’s Marketing Director, Gemma Ollé, highlighted the “real gap between academic hours and the actual ability to get by in the language”.
“We (Spaniards) get a fail when it comes to speaking; people learn English in the technical sense, the grammar and the theory, but when it comes to expressing ourselves we fail,” Ollé added.
Managing director of EF Spain, Niccolò del Monte, stressed that “English is a very key skill” and will become yet more important in the future workplace. “If it is so dominant as a vehicle of communication and as a platform for development for a country, we must ask ourselves whether we are prepared to face a more interconnected, global and AI-driven world,” he added.
READ ALSO: Do English speakers still have an advantage in Spain’s labour market?
Mercedes Marín García, Director General of Training in the Madrid region, stated that adding that English should be interwoven more widely into educational programmes across the spectrum in Spain: “What we need to achieve, especially in the field of employment training, is for English to be a skill that can be developed in all the training courses we offer.”
Oral skills continue to be a persistent weakness, both in Spain and globally, compared to more positive results in reading and listening comprehension, according to the study.
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“Anxieties” and “nervousness” about speaking English in public could play a role, experts say. At the presentation, Melisa Teves, Director of the Institute of Modern Languages at Nebrija University, emphasised the need for positive speaking environments to force students to communicate: “We must create an ecosystem that forces us to speak, which is the skill we have least developed.”
The study also found that the group with the best level of English is those aged 26 to 30, followed by young people aged 18 to 25, who have not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and points out that the gender gap has narrowed for the second consecutive year in the country.
READ ALSO: ¡Bro, qué cringe! How English now dominates teen talk in Spain
The regions that topped the national ranking were Galicia, La Rioja and Madrid, while Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura had the lowest average scores in the country, according to the report.
Vigo ranked as the Spanish city with the highest level of English, while A Coruña, Barcelona and Zaragoza were all above the national average.
