The survey "Europeans and Languages" was conducted in May and June, covering the European Union's 25 member countries, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, and accession candidate Croatia. A total of 29,328 people above 15 were polled.
Although the EU average is 50 per cent, there are big differences among member countries, from Luxembourg where 99 per cent of the population speak a foreign language, Latvia and Malta (93 per cent), and Lithuania (90 per cent), to Hungary (29 per cent), Great Britain (30 per cent), and Portugal, Italy and Spain (36 per cent).
Croatia stands out both among EU accession countries and admission candidates. In Bulgaria a foreign language is spoken by 45 per cent of the population, in Romania by 41 and in Turkey by 29 per cent.
English is the most spoken foreign language in the EU, including in Croatia, where it is spoken by 43 per cent of the population.
The second most spoken language in Croatia is German, as is the case in the EU, followed in Croatia by Italian (12 per cent). The third most spoken language in the EU is French.
Interestingly, following the May 2004 enlargement round, when the EU was joined by Baltic countries and the countries of the former Eastern bloc (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary), Russian became, along Spanish, the fourth most spoken language in the EU.
Croatian is the most spoken foreign language in Slovenia, where it is spoken by 61 per cent of the population, whereas English is spoken by 56 per cent of Slovenes.
Since the Council of Europe introduced it in 2001, European Language Day aims to promote language learning among all groups and underline the importance of language diversity.