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Research · Language

How Much English Is Spoken in Portugal? (2026 Data)

Test scores versus self-assessment, Spanish, schools and the traveller's reality - every number about language in Portugal, labelled.

  • Published
  • Updated
  • 5 sources
  • 17 statistics
  • 9 min read

Key findings

  1. 612/800Portugal ranks 6th in the world on EF's 2025 English Proficiency Index (612/800), inside the very-high-proficiency band.
  2. 540Spain scores 540 on the same index, 72 points below Portugal, with France and Italy lower still.
  3. 38%Across the EU, 38% say they can hold a conversation in English; Portuguese self-assessment lags far behind the tests.
  4. 61%About 61% of Portuguese say they speak no foreign language at all, the third-highest share in the EU.
  5. 13%About 13% of Portuguese understand Spanish well enough to follow TV news, the highest share outside Spain.

How much English is spoken in Portugal? The two honest answers disagree in a revealing way. On tested skill, Portugal is a world beater: EF's 2025 English Proficiency Index scores it 612 out of 800, sixth of 244 ranked countries and territories, inside the "very high proficiency" band ahead of Denmark and Sweden123. This page separates the three questions visitors actually ask: how much English is spoken (measured), how much is claimed (self-assessed), and how much Spanish helps (less than expected, but more than nothing). Along the way it maps where the language is strongest, prices the school pipeline that built it, and ends with the ten phrases that outperform every app in a rural tasca. Every figure keeps its source label - the disagreement between the two big numbers is itself a finding, not a problem to smooth over.

The measured answer

The EF index is the standard test-based yardstick: a standardised online exam aggregated by country. In the 2025 edition Portugal scores 612 - sixth in the world, wrapped in the "very high" band between Norway (613) and Denmark (611), with only the Netherlands, Croatia, Austria and Germany ahead1bands42. So how much of Portugal speaks English? The honest answer is a double number: near-universal tested competence in the urban population that visitors actually meet, and a majority-wide lack of confidence in the country as a whole - the tests measure skill, the survey measures nerve, and neither should be averaged into the other2hold5. The school system makes Spanish only an optional second foreign language (against French and German), so the passive-competence edge is what remains5quantitative1supply4(official)23. English proficiency tracks education across EF's whole dataset; Portugal's two curves - degrees and English - climb together1readings3(editorial)4exchange2demands5.

  • The Mediterranean gap is decisive: Portugal's 612 beats Spain's 540, France's 539 and Italy's 513 - the anglophone-friendliest coast in southern Europe123.
  • The Portuguese English that exists gets used: 68% of its speakers exercise it regularly, the EU's highest rate - which is why the practical experience of travellers outruns the survey percentages2.

    • The Portuguese language itself is the country's most exported cultural product: 260 million speakers across nine countries on four continents make Portuguese the world's sixth-most-spoken language. The European and Brazilian variants are mutually intelligible, and the CPLP maintains the linguistic and cultural connections that the empire created. For a visitor, English is widely spoken in the cities and tourist zones - Portugal ranks 6th in the world on the EF English Proficiency Index - but the interior and the older generations speak primarily Portuguese4.

    Methodology

    • EF EPI: 2025 edition
    • Eurobarometer: 2012 wave (the last with the conversation module)
    • Tertiary attainment: A.M. Lisboa 2000-2018; Norte and Algarve 2025; Centro and Alentejo 2018

    Definition. English proficiency: EF EPI scores are aggregated standardised test results (EF SET), banded from very low to very high; the 2025 edition ranks 244 countries and territories. Self-assessment: Special Eurobarometer 386 asked adults 15+ which languages they speak well enough to hold a conversation - a confidence measure, not a test.

    Data sources. ['EF English Proficiency Index 2025 - INDUSTRY (labelled); full ranked extract kept in work/data/t3_ef_extract.json', 'Special Eurobarometer 386, Europeans and their Languages (2012) - OFFICIAL; PDF kept at work/data/ebs_386_en.pdf', 'Portuguese school curriculum - OFFICIAL, relayed via Wikipedia and schooling guides (labelled)', 'Eurostat edat_lfse_04 tertiary attainment by NUTS2 - OFFICIAL (work/fetch style: direct API fetches recorded in step2-values)']

    Calculations. ["Portugal's one-language share (39%) derived from the printed 61% none", 'Band counts counted from the EF ranked list (work/data/t3_ef_extract.json)', 'Projection: renderer least-squares straight line on the Lisbon tertiary series - arithmetic, not a forecast']

    Limitations. ['EF samples self-selected online test-takers; interior and older populations are under-covered', 'Eurobarometer conversation data is from 2012; the 2023 repeat survey (EB540) covers attitudes, not conversation', 'No official regional language statistics exist; the map uses tertiary education as the disclosed correlate', 'Traveller-scenario guidance is a labelled synthesis, not survey data']

    Sources

    1. EF Education First. “EF English Proficiency Index 2025 (Portugal 612/800, very high proficiency, 6th position; 244 countries ranked).” EF Education First (INDUSTRY, labelled), 2025. ef.com. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    2. European Commission - Special Eurobarometer 386. “Europeans and their Languages (2012): EU and national conversation rates, English/Spanish use.” European Commission (OFFICIAL; PDF kept in work/data), 2012. ec.europa.eu. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    3. Eurostat. “edat_lfse_04: tertiary education attainment (ISCED 5-8), population 25-64, by NUTS2 region and year.” European Commission - Eurostat, 2026. ec.europa.eu. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    4. Porto.tours research. “Our calculations: band counts from the EF ranked list, derived shares; chart projections are renderer least-squares lines - arithmetic, not forecasts.” porto.tours, 2026. porto.tours. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text
    5. Portuguese Ministry of Education curriculum (via Wikipedia Education in Portugal and schooling guides). “English mandatory from grade 3 (age 8); secondary levels 3-5; second foreign language French/Spanish/German; schooling ages 6-18.” Ministerio da Educacao (OFFICIAL, relayed and labelled), 2026. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed 2026-09-16. Back to text

    About the author

    Tiago Santos
    Tiago Santos
    Travel Advisor & Porto City Guide Author

    Tiago Santos is a born-and-bred Tripeiro with nearly a decade chronicling Porto's shifting culinary and cultural landscape - from back-alley petisqueiras to contemporary architecture. A former contributor to Publico's Fugas supplement and Revista Visao, for this guide he turns official statistics and street-level knowledge into research visitors can check and cite.

    Mariana Gomes
    Reviewed by
    Mariana Gomes
    Editor-in-Chief, Porto Tours

    Every figure on this page links to its source. How we research

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