Majority of pupils in Cyprus and EU learn at least one foreign language

The majority of pupils in primary and secondary education in the EU as well as in Cyprus were studying at least one foreign language in 2021, according to data released by Eurostat on the occasion of the European Day of Languages (26 September).

In 2021, 100% of pupils in primary education in Cyprus (86.3% in the EU) were learning at least one foreign language, while in secondary education the share stood at 99.9% in lower secondary and at 93.3% in upper secondary education (98.5% and 91.0% in the EU, respectively).

Also, in 2021 in the EU, 61.0% of students in upper secondary general education studied two or more foreign languages as compulsory subjects or as compulsory curriculum options, +2.6 percentage points (pp) more than in 2013 (58.4%). In upper secondary vocational education, this share was 34.9%, +0.8 pp than in 2013 (34.1%).

In Cyprus, the percentage of students that studied two or more foreign languages were 39.0% in upper secondary general education (-44.8 pp compared with 83.8% in 2013) and 30.5% in upper secondary vocational education (+8.7 pp compared with 21.8% in 2013).

In Luxembourg and France, all students in upper secondary general education studied two or more foreign languages. Czechia, Romania and Slovakia also registered a large share of students studying two or more languages (all 99%). These EU countries were followed closely by Estonia (97%), Slovenia and Finland (both 96%).

When it comes to upper secondary vocational education, Romania was the only EU country where almost all students (97%) studied two or more foreign languages in 2021. Finland (82%) followed, with Poland (77%) and Luxembourg (75%) coming next.

English was the most studied foreign language at the upper secondary general and vocational education level in the EU, with 96.8% and 78.6% of students learning it, respectively.

In Cyprus, most students in upper secondary general education learned English (99.6%), followed by French (28.5%), Russian (5.9%), Spanish (4.7%), Italian (1.7%) and German (1.5%).

Most students in upper secondary vocational education in Cyprus were learning English (94.8%), followed by Russian (14.8%), French (6.0%) and German (0.7%).

In terms of upper secondary general education across the EU, Spanish ranked second (26.8%), followed by French (22.3%), German (21.8%) and Italian (3.2%). In addition, Russian was the non-EU language most commonly learned in the EU (2.8%), especially in Estonia (66%) and Latvia (59%), followed by Lithuania (28%) and Bulgaria (25%).

In upper secondary vocational education in the EU, the German language came in second (17.9%), followed by French (16.4%), Spanish (7.0%) and Russian (2.2%). In this case, Russian was mostly learned in Latvia (42%), Bulgaria (30%) and Cyprus (15%).