Czechia rises in global English-skills index, but still falls behind all neighbors

Czechia has moved up one spot in the 2025 Education First English Proficiency Index, reaching 23rd place globally with 582 points, but it still lags behind all of its bordering countries.

Released Wednesday, the index showed that Prague’s residents are not the country’s most proficient English speakers, and that the Czech public’s strongest English-based skill is reading.

The international report is based on the teaching-based Education First’s Standard English Test, taken this year by 2.2 million non-native speakers across 123 countries. For the first time, the 2025 index included productive skills, speaking and writing, alongside reading and listening, giving a more complete picture of language ability.

Czechia has improved by 15 points compared to last year, reaching 582 points overall and moving up one place, to 23rd, in the global ranking. Despite this gain, the country remains in the index’s B2 category (upper-intermediate), while neighboring nations such as Germany, Poland, and Slovakia rank at the C1 level (very high proficiency).

It may come as a surprise that residents of Czechia’s second-largest city Brno achieved the highest score in English proficiency (620 points) nationwide, surpassing Prague (576 points) by a comfortable margin. Both cities have seen improvements in English in recent years; representative of the country’s steadilly improving trend in ability.

Within Czechia, reading remains the strongest English skill, followed by listening and writing, while speaking is the most challenging for Czechs. Test scores show little difference between the two genders, though men slightly outperform women, consistent with global trends. The highest scores were achieved by those aged 26 to 30.

From a global perspective, Czechia outperforms Switzerland, France, and Israel, though ranks lower than Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Romania.

According to the Council of Europe’s description, a B2-level English speaker “can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with other speakers possible without strain for either party.” A B2-level individual can also “understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions.”

Internationally, the Netherlands leads with 624 points, while Copenhagen tops capital cities at 644. Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Italy scored lowest in Europe respectively, and Cambodia finished last globally with 390 points, reflecting basic A2-level ability.