Which Countries Are Learning the Most Languages?

Why multilingualism thrives in some nations—and struggles to take root in others.

Author

Philip Saparov
August 14, 2026

In partnership with

Greetings, curious explorer of our multilingual world!

Speaking more than one language can open doors to travel, careers, friendships, and entirely different ways of seeing the world. But the odds of becoming multilingual depend heavily on where you grow up.

In parts of Europe, learning two foreign languages at school is routine. Across Africa, daily life itself may require several languages. In much of Asia, English has become a powerful second-language goal. Meanwhile, the United States remains a striking outlier.

Let’s see where the world is becoming most multilingual.

Does dough making leave your kitchen shaking?

Meet Ooni Halo Core Spiral Mixer, the home mixer finally built for breadmaking:

  • Uses the spiral mixing technology from professional kitchens

  • Packs high torque power through dual DC motors

  • Stays sturdy and stable, even at top speed

  • Creates stronger dough, softer loaves and a higher rise

  • Whips, beats and kneads in one countertop machine

🇪🇺 Europe has turned language learning into something close to an educational norm.

Across the EU, 58.8% of lower-secondary students were learning at least two foreign languages in 2024. In Finland, that figure reached an extraordinary 97.2%. Greece, Italy, Romania, Portugal, and Malta were all above 93%.

The pattern continues later in school. Nearly half of all EU upper-secondary students were studying two or more foreign languages, while Romania reached 98.1%, Finland 88.7%, and Luxembourg 80.5%.

English dominates, but French, German, and Spanish remain important second or third choices.

For travelers and internationally minded families, this helps explain why moving around Europe can feel linguistically easy even when crossing national borders.

📚 Perspective: among lower-secondary students, learning two foreign languages is more common than not across the EU.

Few places make multilingualism feel as ordinary as 🇱🇺 Luxembourg.

Children there encounter Luxembourgish, German, and French as part of everyday life and education. Eurostat reports that 78.7% of primary-school pupils were learning at least two foreign languages in 2024—by far the highest share in the EU at that age.

The unusual part is that English often arrives later. At primary level, Luxembourg focuses heavily on German and French, which Eurostat classifies as foreign languages for education statistics even though both are official languages in the country.

By secondary school, many students have effectively built a multilingual toolkit before adulthood.

That can offer obvious advantages in a small country surrounded by France, Germany, and Belgium, where cross-border work and travel are part of daily life.

🔎 A remarkable number: 94.7% of Luxembourg’s primary pupils study German, while 79.9% study French.

Some countries stand out not because several languages are spoken at home, but because schools systematically teach them.

🇫🇮 Finland leads the EU at lower-secondary level, where 97.2% of pupils study at least two foreign languages. 🇷🇴 Romania leads at upper-secondary level, at 98.1%.

Greece also performs strongly, while France has sharply increased the share of lower-secondary students learning two languages over the past decade.

Why push so hard?

For smaller-language countries, foreign languages can expand access to universities, jobs, tourism, international business, and media. English is often the first choice, but a second foreign language creates another layer of flexibility.

This also shows why multilingualism does not have to happen by accident. National education policy can make it normal.

🎓 One striking contrast: in Finland nearly every lower-secondary pupil learns two foreign languages; in Ireland, only 5.2% do.

How Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie brand grew sales 40% with CTV ads

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Aniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

In Africa, multilingualism often begins long before anyone enters a classroom.

🌍 UNESCO estimates the continent is home to 1,500 to 3,000 languages—roughly one-third of the world’s total. People may use one language at home, another locally, and English, French, Portuguese, or another language for education, government, or business.

That creates multilingual populations for reasons very different from those in Europe.

Education systems are increasingly adapting. UNESCO reports that 31 of Africa’s 55 countries now have bilingual or multilingual education policies. In Mozambique, introducing local-language teaching in some schools was associated with a 15% improvement in school success rates.

Yet the challenge is enormous: only a small fraction of the continent’s languages are used formally in education.

🗣️ The fascinating reality: for millions of Africans, switching languages is not a special skill—it is simply how daily life works.

Across much of Asia, multilingualism increasingly includes one common target: English.

The 2025 EF English Proficiency Index, based on results from 2.2 million adults across 123 countries and regions, shows enormous variation. Malaysia ranks 24th globally with a score of 581, while the Philippines sits at 569. Vietnam scores 500, just above the global average of 488.

The differences reflect far more than classroom hours. History, tourism, international business, media, and opportunities to actually use English all matter.

For ambitious workers, English can function less like a school subject and more like economic infrastructure—opening access to international employers, universities, technology, and online information.

At the other end of the spectrum, countries such as Japan continue to struggle with spoken English despite years of formal study.

🌏 The broader shift: English may be the closest thing the modern world has to a shared second language.

🇺🇸 The United States is one of the clearest exceptions to the multilingual trend.

Only about one in five U.S. K–12 students is enrolled in a world-language class, according to ACTFL. At universities, the figure is roughly one in twelve. By comparison, ACTFL notes that 92% of European students learn another language in school.

And the gap may be widening. U.S. college language enrollment fell 16.6% between 2016 and 2021, according to figures cited by ACTFL in its 2026 education funding proposal.

Geography partly explains the difference. Americans can travel thousands of miles, work for major companies, and consume enormous amounts of media without leaving an English-speaking environment.

But the economic picture is changing. ACTFL reports that 90% of U.S. employers rely on employees with multilingual skills.

💼 The paradox: America has less pressure to learn languages—yet its global economy increasingly rewards people who do.

Translation technology is improving so rapidly that an obvious question arises: why spend years learning another language if AI can translate it instantly?

🤖 The answer may be more interesting than expected.

AI can increasingly handle menus, emails, documents, and basic conversation. It is also becoming a language-learning tool itself, giving learners unlimited practice with adaptive conversational partners. Recent research is even testing AI agents designed to reduce anxiety when people practice speaking a foreign language.

But translation and communication are not quite the same thing.

Language carries humor, emotion, cultural references, trust, and subtle social signals that matter in friendships, negotiation, travel, and leadership. Meanwhile, evidence presented in 2026 suggests multilingualism may also have cognitive benefits: researchers reported associations between speaking additional languages and younger-looking patterns of brain connectivity.

🔮 The likely future: AI may eliminate the need to translate every sentence—but it could make genuinely speaking another language even more distinctive.

Language learning offers a fascinating window into how countries prepare people for the world beyond their borders.

Yet technology may now change the calculation again.

For travelers, parents, workers, and retirees, another language remains more than a practical tool. It can expand where you feel comfortable, who you can know, and how deeply you understand a place.

Stay informed, stay curious, and keep exploring the many languages through which the world tells its story.

Warm regards,

Shane Fulmer
Founder, WorldPopulationReview.com

P.S. Want to sponsor this newsletter? Reach 139,000+ global-minded readers — click here!