China ranks 68th in English proficiency, out of 111 non-English-speaking countries

Shanghai and Beijing led the list of the Chinese mainland in this year's English Proficiency Index released by English training institution, Education First (EF).

Hong Kong ranked first among all of China's regions in the report.

The report is the 12th edition of its kind, based on data from more than 2.1 million test takers who are non-native English speakers, among 111 countries and regions in the world. The testers took an online English test, which was initiated by EF.

Among all the non-English-native countries, the Netherlands ranked first, followed by Singapore, Austria, Norway and Denmark.

Europe is the best in the world in English proficiency.

Hong Kong is the region with the highest score at 561 in China, a 16-point increase from last report's 545.

Beijing and Shanghai both scored 549, ranking top among all the cities on the Chinese mainland, followed by Tianjin and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province.

"Within China, people in coastal areas have a higher proficiency, while the regions in the west show lower English ability," said Jean Liu, executive vice president and chief corporate affairs officer at EF China.

Also, English proficiency in China has seen a decline compared with last year's result.

China gained a score of 499 out of 800, ranking 68th among all the 111 countries.

"This year, more people from western China were invited to take the test, leading to the lower English proficiency in the result," Liu explained.

Apart from the regional disparity, the index also shows different English proficiencies in men and women. It also varies in age groups and occupations.

The result shows that women leave school less proficient in English than men, but women have been catching up in the past decade.

Meanwhile, older people have improved their English language skills while the younger generation hasn't.

According to the report, English proficiency has risen significantly among all cohorts over 25 with the largest improvement in adults over 40.

However, English proficiency among those aged 21-25 has not changed since 2015.