Summary:

The 2017 edition of EF's annual English Proficiency Index has been released. The report compares the English language ability of people from 80 countries and regions, based on over 1 million participants taking the company's online Standard English Test.

As with previous years' findings, the report showed that average levels of English proficiency were highest in northern Europe, with only two non-European countries - Singapore and South Africa - in the top 10 globally. Meanwhile, Middle Eastern countries were again shown to have the lowest English levels, accounting for 5 out of the 10 bottom countries and with the highest-ranked Middle Eastern country, the UAE, placed only 57th out of 80 countries and regions. Other consistent findings were that women tended to have higher scores than men on average, while young people's English was better than that of older test takers in most countries.

Compared to previous version of the report, five countries - Saudi Arabia, Panama, Thailand, Singapore and Lithuania - had significantly higher scores than last year, suggesting that English levels have improved in these areas. Another 44 countries saw a slight increase in scores compared to 24 which saw a slight decrease, and none had a significant decrease. This suggests that average English proficiency is improving in most countries around the world.

Within China, the English levels of different provinces and provincial-level regions was also measured. Three of the country's directly-governed cities - Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin - as well as Fujian province had average scores in the "moderate proficiency" range, putting them around or above the global average. Meanwhile, English ability in eight provinces and autonomous regions in central and western China - Yunnan, Guizhou, Ningxia, Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hunan and Gansu - was rated "very low" or equivalent to the bottom quarter of all countries.

Analysis by Kevin Prest:

The report gives a useful general indicator of English levels in different countries and Chinese provinces, which can aid in prioritising markets for partnerships or student recruitment. However, EF's proficiency index is not a perfect measure as it is based on a self-selected group of online candidates. There are some surprising anomalies in the results such as Shanghai receiving a higher average score than Hong Kong while most observers would say the opposite.

Sources:

1. EF English Proficiency Index 2017 report and country comparison: http://www.ef.edu/epi/

2. China results, including comparison by province: http://www.ef.edu/epi/regions/asia/china/