When moving to Portugal, or simply just visiting the country, people often ask if English is widely spoken, and the general answer is yes, adding more reasons to the list of why Portugal is a great country for expats. Portugal is the seventh most proficient country in the world when it comes to speaking English as a second language, according to the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), which analyses data from 2.2 million non-native English speakers in 100 countries and regions. In a ranking led by the Netherlands, Portugal appears 7th in the ranking behind Denmark (2nd), Finland (3rd), Sweden (4th), Norway (5th) and Austria (6th).
This is the best ever record that Portugal has achieved in this ranking, with the country catching up with the Northern European nations that are commonly known for having excellent English levels. When it comes to where English is spoken in Portugal, Porto is the Portuguese city where English is best spoken, followed by Coimbra (2nd) and Braga (3rd). Lisbon, which collected the prize 2 years ago, didn't manage to position beyond 4th place this year.
EF EPI is based on the results of the EF Standard English Test (EF SET), the world's first free standardised English test. EF SET has been used around the world by thousands of schools, companies and governments for large-scale testing.
Women speak better English
The study - which assessed the English of more than 2.2 million people - concludes that worldwide women speak better English than men, although the disparity is less and less evident from past editions of the EF EPI.
In Portugal, as was already the case last year, men were better rated than women. Nevertheless, Portuguese women also reach a "very high" English level in 2020 (61.3 points), well above the average for men worldwide (49.8 points).
Young Portuguese women between the ages of 21 and 25 continue to be the highest rated in the EPI - a report that shows a correlation between fluency in English and purchasing power, quality of life, innovation and a number of other socio-economic indicators.
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