About EF EPI

This edition of the EF EPI is based on test data from more than 2,300,000 test takers around the world who took the EF SET in 2025.

The EF SET is an online, adaptive English test of reading, listening, speaking and writing skills. It is an objectively scored test designed to classify test takers’ language abilities into one of the six levels established by the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). The EF SET is available to any Internet user for free. For more information about the research and development of the EF SET, visit www.efset.org/about/.

EF EPI 2026 scores have been found to correlate strongly with TOEFL iBT 2024 scores (r=0.72) and IELTS Academic Test 2024 scores (r=0.65). These correlations show that, while these tests have different designs and test taker profiles, they reveal similar trends in national English proficiency.

Although the sample of test takers for the EF EPI is biased toward respondents who are interested in pursuing language study and younger adults, the sample is roughly balanced between male and female respondents and represents adult language learners from a broad range of ages.

• Female respondents comprised 48% of the overall sample, male respondents 42% and respondents who did not provide gender information 10%.

• The average age of respondents who provided age information was 27, with 85% of those respondents under the age of 35, and 99.6% under the age of 60. 15% of respondents did not provide their birth year.

• The average age of male respondents was 27, slightly higher than the average age of female respondents, which was 26.

Only cities and regions with a minimum of 100 test takers were included in the Index, and only countries with a minimum of 700 test takers, but in most cases the number of test takers was far greater.

The test-taking population represented in this Index is self-selected and not guaranteed to be representative. Only those who want to learn English or are curious about their English skills will participate in one of these tests. This could skew scores lower or higher than those of the general population.

The EF SET is free and online, so anyone with an Internet connection can participate. Almost all of our test takers are working adults or young adults finishing their studies. People without Internet access would be automatically excluded. The EF SET site is fully adaptive and 38% of test takers in 2025 completed the exam from a mobile device. It is accessible to people who use screen readers and adapted versions exist for test takers requiring additional time or support. In parts of the world where Internet usage is low, we would expect the impact of an online format to be strong. This sampling bias would tend to pull scores upward by excluding poorer and less educated people, and those living in areas with little or no internet connectivity. Nevertheless, open access online tests have proven effective in gathering very large amounts of data about a range of indicators, and we believe they provide valuable information about global English proficiency levels.

National EF EPI scores are calculated using a three-year rolling average. First, we calculate the average EF SET score achieved by all test takers residing in a country during the previous calendar year. Then, we average that score with the published EF EPI score for Y-1 and Y-2. This stabilizes the index and reduces turbulence from sampling variation year over year. We calculate scores for industries, job functions and seniority levels in the same way.

Once national EF EPI scores are calculated, we use them to calculate rollup scores for world regions (Europe, Asia, etc.) as well as global scores. These scores are population weighted by country, so for example, India's score carries a much heavier weight than Vietnam's in the calculation of Asia's score. This applies to all scores calculated at the supranational level (world and region scores along with their gender and age group breakdowns).

Scores for subgroups within a country are not population weighted. We calculate these as a three-year rolling average calibrated against the national score for coherence.

Skill scores were calculated as the average for that skill within a country, so for example, the speaking score for Germany is the average of all speaking tests taken in Germany in 2025. A country’s skill scores do not necessarily average up to the national score because not all tests evaluate all skills. Approximately 40% of test takers in 2025 chose to test their speaking and writing skills

Based on score thresholds, we assign countries, regions, and cities to proficiency bands. This allows recognition of clusters with similar English skill levels and comparisons within and between regions.

The EF EPI does not aim to compete with or contradict national test results, language polling data, or any other data set. Instead, these data sets complement each other. Some are granular but limited in scope to a single age group, country, region, or test taker profile. The EF EPI is broad, examining working-aged adults around the world using a common assessment method. There is no other data set of comparable size and scope, and, despite its limitations, we, along with many policymakers, scholars,and analysts, believe it to be a valuable reference point in the global conversation about English language education.

The EF EPI is created through a different process from the one used by public opinion research organizations such as Euromonitor and Gallup, or by the OECD in skills surveys such as PISA and PIAAC. Those studies select survey participants using age, gender, level of education, income, and other factors. Their survey panels tend to be small, with at most a few thousand participants. Because they have been composed using complex sampling methods, they are considered representative of the entire population.

PISA included an English as a foreign language assessment for the first time in 2025 which provides an interesting comparison data set for the EF EPI as it benchmarks skill levels among 15-year-olds.

Another source of data about English proficiency comes from national education systems. Many schools test the English skills of every high school student or university applicant using a standardized national assessment. The results may or may not be made public, but educators and government officials use the data to assess the efficacy of education reform and pinpoint areas for improvement. Unfortunately, those national assessments are not comparable to each other, and they are not administered to adults, so while they give a good indication of English proficiency among high school students in one part of the world, they cannot be used for international comparison, nor can they tell us much about adult English proficiency levels.

EF (Education First) (www.ef.com) is an international education company that focuses on language, academics, cultural exchange, and educational travel. Founded in 1965, EF’s mission is “opening the world through education.” Millions of students, companies and organizations have participated in an EF program. The EF English Proficiency Index is published by Signum International AG.

Efekta Education Group is an innovative EdTech company focused on improving educational outcomes at scale. Efekta is an EF company.