“I can understand English, but I prefer to answer in French to be more precise” – everyone remembers this legendary phrase by Swiss Economics Minister Guy Parmelin in 2018. Since then, his level of English seems to have improved considerably. On the other hand, the Swiss population’s English language skills progress has been more modest.
Let’s start with the good news: the level of English among young Swiss adults has risen for the first time in four years, according to the multinational EF (Education First), which assesses the English-as-a-foreign-language skills of over 2.2 million adults in 123 countries. On the whole, the Swiss are rated as “good”.
However, Switzerland does not shine in international comparison. The country only ranks 30th in the world and 22nd in Europe. The three countries holding the top three spots are, in descending order, the Netherlands, Croatia and Austria. As is often the case in this type of ranking, the Germanic and Nordic countries have a good level of English, while southern European countries are poor performers, with the exception of Portugal (6th in the world) and Romania (11th).
This difference can also be seen in Switzerland, with German-speaking Switzerland, as usual, scoring much higher than French-speaking Switzerland and Italian-speaking Ticino. According to the rankings, the canton with the best command of English is Basel City, followed by Zug and St Gallen. The three worst are Geneva, Neuchâtel and Ticino, which comes last. Finally, the EF tests show that the Swiss fare better in terms of comprehension than expression, both written and oral.