Language Statistics in the European Union

According to a poll published earlier in February by the European Commission, almost half of all EU citizens know only their own native language. Nonetheless, there is wide agreement among Europeans that speaking a foreign language is important. More than two thirds of the people surveyed say that everyone in the EU should be able to speak one European language in addition to their mother tongue. Most say that this language should be English.

However, almost two thirds of the people polled in all EU countries believe that it's becoming increasingly necessary to protect their own languages as the European Union expands to include new member countries. Preserving language diversity is a view that is particularly strong in Greece and Finland. Only three percent of the European population speaks Greek and only one percent speaks Finnish.

More than half of the people in the European Union (53%) say they can speak at least one European language in addition to their own. More than a quarter claim to speak two foreign languages. The languages most commonly learned as foreign languages are English (41%), French (19%) and German (10%).

When the EU member states are compared with one another, statistics show that smaller countries and those where the native language is not widely taught outside the country's borders produce higher ratings of foreign language speakers. In Luxembourg, for instance, nearly every citizen speaks more than one language well enough to hold a conversation. This is equally true for more than 8 out of 10 people living in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

According to the poll, most people feel motivated to learn a foreign language because they want to use it on vacations abroad. Many people also see personal satisfaction as a motivational factor. Others say they would be inclined to learn another language if they could use it at work, if it helped them get a better job, or if it enabled them to understand people from other cultures.

The European Commission's study also reflects significant variations in language skills between different age groups. Throughout Europe the younger generations are most likely to be able to speak a foreign language, whereas those over the age of 55 are less likely to know a foreign language.

When people were asked why they didn't speak a foreign language, many said they didn't have the time to learn another language or they claimed it was just too difficult. In the southern countries of the EU, roughly a third of the people surveyed said they will not learn a foreign language because courses are too expensive.

These statistics were compiled for the European Union in the  Eurobarometer Report 54: "Europeans and Languages"