A map of the countries that speak the best English

If you’re deciding where to go on holiday, but don’t have time (or inclination) to learn the local lingo – you’re in luck. Almost a million people living across 72 countries around the world have been ranked for their English-speaking skills.

In at number one is the Netherlands, which has moved from second place in 2014 and 2015. Coming in second place is Denmark, followed by Sweden (which ranked first last year), Norway, Finland, Singapore and Luxembourg, who all scored “very high”.

The top of the list looks like this:

• Netherlands
• Denmark
• Sweden
• Norway
• Finland
• Singapore
• Luxembourg
• Austria
• Germany
• Poland
• Belgium
• Malaysia
• Philippines
• Switzerland
• Portugal
• Czech Republic
• Serbia
• Hungary
• Argentina
• Romania

The UK's neighbour, France, came in at 29, while Spain ranked 25th.

The 10 lowest scoring countries are El Salvador, Oman, Kuwait, Mongolia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Laos, Libya and lastly, Iraq.

Education First also found that adults aged 18 to 25 have the strongest English skills across the world, and women speak English better than men in almost all countries and age groups.

Here's how each continent ranks:

Europe

Latin America

Asia

Middle East and North Africa

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