Luxembourg remains the clear European leader in multilingual education at primary level, with nearly four out of five pupils learning two or more foreign languages, latest EU figures show.

According to Eurostat, 78.9% of primary school children in Luxembourg studied at least two foreign languages in 2023 – far ahead of the EU average of 6.4%. The next closest countries were Latvia (37%), Greece (35.5%) and Estonia (34.9%).

The figures will come as no surprise to residents of the Grand Duchy, which finds itself grappling over which languages should be prioritised in schools and criticism of its integration poliicies.

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© Eurostat

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The findings, released to coincide with the European Day of Languages, underline Luxembourg’s distinctive place in Europe’s linguistic landscape, where the national education system combines Luxembourgish, French and German from an early age.

Despite leading the bloc, Luxembourg also recorded one of the steepest drops in multilingual learning at primary level over the past decade, with a decline of 4.9 percentage points between 2013 and 2023. Poland registered an even sharper fall at –6.5 points.

Across the EU, 15 member states reported increases, albeit mostly modest. Latvia saw the largest jump, up 22.1 points, followed by Finland (+15.2), Greece (+9.6) and Spain (+8.3). In Croatia (18.4%) and Bulgaria (1.5%) the share of pupils learning multiple languages remained unchanged.

At lower secondary level the picture is more balanced, with 59.5% of pupils EU-wide learning two or more languages in 2023. Finland topped the ranking at 97.8%, with Greece, Italy, Malta, Estonia, Romania and Portugal reporting rates above 93%, and Luxembourg sitting around 84%. Ireland (5.4%), Hungary (6.1%) and Austria (7.6%) were at the bottom of the table.

RTL

© Eurostat

Close neighbours France (+22%) and Belgium (+18.2) recorded the largest increases in multilingual lower secondary classrooms alongside Czechia (+28.%, while Poland (–42.8%), Slovenia (–33% and Slovakia (–26%) saw dramatic declines.

The European Commission marked this year’s European Day of Languages under the theme “languages open hearts and minds”.