Infographics: Which countries are best at English?

English is the world's most widely spoken language—however, of a total 1.5bn speakers, only 375m are classified as native. Therefore, around the world over 1bn people speak English as a second language, but where is proficiency highest?

Sweden has emerged as the nation with the highest English language proficiency, according to the EF EPI English Proficiency Index. The Scandinavian nation tops the list with a score of 70.94. Sweden's high English proficiency can be attributed to, in part, a high-quality education, the popularity of English speaking films and music and grammatical and phonological similarities between the two languages.

Second place goes to the Netherlands, just behind with a score of 70.58. Denmark completes the top three, with a score of 70.05. The first non-European state to appear on the list is Singapore, followed by Malaysia and Argentina.

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