Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.Brussels (dpa) – The foreign language skills of EU citizens have increased in recent years, but not when it comes to German, a Eurobarometer survey published by the European Commission in Brussels on Tuesday revealed.
In 2023, almost 60 percent of Europeans stated that they could hold a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue, up 3 percent on the previous survey from 2012, and almost 80 percent of 15-24-year-olds, up 5 percent.
German is still one of the most widely spoken foreign languages in the EU: According to the survey, 10 percent of Europeans can hold a conversation in German, even if they are not native speakers. Compared to 2012, however, this is a drop of two points – and German proficiency has also fallen among 15-24-year-olds by four points to 12 percent.
The situation is different with English: The language is spoken by almost half of Europeans as a foreign or second language and has also gained in popularity compared to the previous survey. It is striking that this knowledge is even more widespread among younger EU citizens at 70 percent.
A total of 11 percent of non-native speakers in the EU can hold a conversation in French, putting the language ahead of German (10 percent) and Spanish, which 7 percent of respondents said they could.
According to the European Commission, more than 26,500 people aged 15 and over in the 27 EU member states were interviewed for the survey. The surveys were conducted in person in all countries between September and October 2023 and were supplemented by self-completion interviews in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Malta and Finland. (22 May)
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