Sri Lanka has been placed 73rd out of 123 countries and regions in the 2025 EF English Proficiency Index, landing the country in the ranking’s “Low Proficiency” band.
The index is compiled by the education company EF Education First and draws on test results from more than 2.2 million adults worldwide. Sri Lanka recorded an overall score of 486, the Daily Mirror reported.
Ahead of India, behind the rest of South Asia
The score puts Sri Lanka marginally above India, which recorded 484. It sits below the other South Asian countries covered by the index — Nepal on 514, Bangladesh on 506 and Pakistan on 493.
Across the four skills measured, writing was Sri Lanka’s strongest at 508, followed by reading on 502 and speaking on 501. Listening was the weakest at 470.
Colombo scores well above the national figure
Colombo returned the highest city-level score in the country at 543, enough to place the capital in the “Moderate Proficiency” category — a band above Sri Lanka’s national result. The Central Province recorded the highest provincial score at 515.
The strongest-performing age group was 26 to 30-year-olds, who averaged 520.
The global picture
The Netherlands again topped the table with 624, followed by Croatia on 617, Austria on 616, Germany on 615 and Norway on 613. All five fell into the “Very High Proficiency” category.
At the bottom, Cambodia ranked 123rd with 390, behind Côte d’Ivoire on 393, Libya on 395, Togo on 397 and Somalia on 398.
The report identifies speaking as a common weakness, scoring lower than other skills in more than half the countries measured. It also argues that English ability is increasingly tied to international competitiveness, innovation and the capacity of workforces to take up emerging technologies, including AI-based productivity tools.
Sources: Daily Mirror.
