60% of pupils study two or more foreign languages.

According to recent Eurostat data, learning foreign languages remains an important part of school education in the EU. In 2023, 60% of students in general education at ISCED 34 (the equivalent of upper secondary school) will have studied two or more foreign languages. This is slightly lower than in 2022 (60.8%), but still high. In vocational schools (ISCED 35), 34.8% of students studied two or more foreign languages, up 1 p.p. from a year earlier.

However, there is a significant difference between countries. In nine EU states, more than 90% of high school students learn two or more languages. The leaders are France (99.8%), Romania (99.1%) and the Czech Republic (98.5%). At the bottom of the list are Portugal (6.7%), Ireland (10.4%) and Spain (22.4%). This shows the different prioritisation of language education in the EU countries.

In vocational education, the picture looks different: only Romania can boast almost universal training (97.2%). It is followed by Finland (85%) and Poland (78%). But Malta (0%), Spain and Greece (0.1% each) show an almost complete absence of a second language among vocational students.

In terms of specific languages, English still holds the first place with 96% of students in general education and 80.1% in vocational schools. In the "civic" segment, Spanish (27.1%) comes second, followed by German (21.2%), French (20.8%) and Italian (3.2%). In vocational education, German (18.1%) comes after English, followed by French (14.1%), Spanish (6.6%) and Russian (2.3%).

The statistics cover only modern spoken languages that are compulsory in the curriculum - electives and classical languages such as Latin or Ancient Greek were not taken into account.