Which country is the non-English speaking country with the highest percentage of people fluent in English?

Question

Which country is the non-English speaking country that with the highest percentage of people fluent in English?

Answer 1

Answering to the above comment, not a lot of Chinese people are FLUENT in English - they speak the language as many US citizens speak Spanish or French, just to say "hello" and "how are you" with a horrible accent.
In fact, we are talking about PERCENTAGE of the population, not about bare numbers.
And any answer from the above could be right: Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Faroes, Denmark and Iceland) as well as the Netherlands - which is the country with the official language nearest to English - speak Germanic languages and have a good education in second language. Also, Finland (most Finns speak non-Indo-European languages, like Finnish and Saami) is known for having a very good percentage - they have Swedish as second language in school, so it's not surprising that English is learnt so well.
I doubt any other place in the world (be it India, Egypt or Japan) has a better PERCENTAGE of fluent English speakers within its population than European countries.

Edit: Answering the comment under this one, I repeat that the question is clearly about percentage; India (and Pakistan, and maybe Egypt in the past) has English as official language, but I am sure that the majority of Indians do not learn English at school (don't even go to school enough) with the necessary proficiency to be called "fluent speakers". And I don't think old British territories like Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand enter into this question, even if there are other co-official (and/or native) languages like Afrikaans, Zulu or Inuktitut.

Answer 2

I would say India. Hindi is the official language. English is the second official language (mostly used for official purposes).

I would also be tempted to mention South Africa which has 11 official languages. English just being one of them.
The most widely spoken language of European descent in South Africa is Afrikaans. Therefore, this would make South Africa a country with a high percentage of people that speak English as a second language...

At a guess, I would also say that Holland must have a high percentage of English speakers as a foreign language. In my experience, English isn't that wide spread in Scandinavian countries (except perhaps Denmark and Sweden). The younger generation definately have a good comprehension of the English language though. But when you actually travel there you discover that many people do not speak a word of English. (Just an observation. It's not necessary that they speak English).

English and French people seem to have one of the hardest times learning foreign languages because they seem to believe that everyone else should do all of the work for them.... (???) I'm glad that idea is finally changing.

Thanks for listening,

Answer 3

From personal experience, Norway.They all Learn and speak English, as a second language.

Answer 4

I hear than in Finland it is 40-50%

Chinese have a lot too. But the percentage is still small on account of the huge population. Holland is high too.

Answer 5

I cant remember where i saw it but the statistics say that the highest number of english speakers from a non speaking country is china. I will try to find out the link now

Answer 6

I would say the Netherlands or any Scandinavian country. Anyplace where they broadcast television shows in the original language but with subtitles in the local language. Great way to learn another language!

Answer 7

Most Belgians speak English, it is taught at school, as
part of the learning. But Belgium is a very small country!

Answer 8

I would say China, considering its population. I don't agree with people who mentioned some European countries such as Greece (it is spelt like that), etc. English is learnt as a second language in all European countries, which, unfortunatelly, doesn't mean that many people are really fluent in it.

Answer 9

Sweden?

Answer 10

Senegal