It’s been more than a decade since Mariano Rajoy said “it’s all very complicated” during a budget summit held in Brussels in 2012. In the same week, NP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo admitted that he had a “problem”. with English, and PSOE was quick to make fun of the politician in a video. This isn’t the first time a Spanish politician has been poked fun at because of his level of proficiency in the Shakespearean language, and it’s not uncommon for popular leaders. In fact, Pedro Sanchez is the exception, which confirms the rule in terms of the knowledge of this language by the presidents of the government. A true reflection of what is happening in all of Spanish society.

English is still the subject of study in our country. According to the latest National Institute of Statistics (INE) Survey of Basic Population and Housing Characteristics, only 15% of the Spanish population speaks English “well”. In fact, the percentage is similar to that of the Catalans (14.2%). 10% express themselves with difficulty, and 75% admit they don’t know how to do it.

Madrid lead

Madrid is the community where English is best spoken (22.7%), followed by the Balearic Islands (19.8%), the Canary Islands (17.6%), Catalonia (16.3%) and Navarre ( 16.1%). On the other side of the board is Melilla, where barely 6.5% of the population speak the language. It is followed by Ceuta (8.3%), Extremadura (8.8%), Galicia (8.9%) and Castile La Mancha (9.9%).

Nearly 90% of Spaniards belonging to the feijoo age group – between 60 and 69 years old – admit that “nothing” speaks English.

Young people know this language best of all. In fact, with age, the level and extent of tongue implantation decreases. Among the population aged 10 to 19, 28.5% speak English well, and among the population aged 20 to 29 this percentage rises to 32%. But if we look at older ones, the data is more discouraging. The population aged 40 to 49 who speak English well is 15.5%. Not to mention those over 50: more than 80% do not speak the language. In the age group to which Nunez Feijoo belongs – from 60 to 69 years old – only 5.4% speak it “very well” and 5.2% “with difficulty”.

While the official languages ​​have monopolized family usage in their respective territories, English is more commonly used at work, although the percentage is not very high, with 17.7% of the population using English sometimes, often, or always in their work. Among friends, 11.3% hardly spoke, and in family cells the percentage dropped to 7.7%.

At the tail of Europe

Despite the fact that it is spoken almost all over the world, the level of English of the Spaniards continues to be at the bottom of Europe. Specifically in position 25, according to EF Education First EFI 2022.

For many years, the level of English in Spain has remained at the same level. Last year it improved by 5 points compared to 2021 and for the first time since 2014 it did not show a downward trend, but even so, the Spanish do not have a very good level of English. The data speaks. And the fact is that he is in 33rd position in the world list after Italy or France.

Most Spaniards speak only one language (57.1%). Fourteen million people are bilingual (31.9%) and four million (8.9%) are trilingual or more. In addition to the co-official languages, among which Catalan and Valencian stand out, the most common foreign languages ​​in Spain are English (14.7%), Spanish French (3.7%), Arab (1.6%), Romanian (1.1%) and Italian (1%).

English is still one of the subjects that continues to stifle us as a country, despite recent advances in English and growing familiarity with the universal Franconian language, thanks in part to the digital revolution. Feijoo was right when, admitting that his English was not very good, he said that this happens to “most Spaniards”.