How many people in the Netherlands can speak English?

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Roman

dunno the exact number, but it must be one of the highest in Europe out of non-English speaking countries.

leatherbiker040

According to the central bureau of the statistics (CBS) in 2006 about one third of the Dutch spoke little to no English; 20% spoke enough English to have simple conversations and 46% of the Dutch spoke fluently English to a level that they could understand English newspapers, follow BBC TV series and read English novels.

t_maia2000

Dutch have the highest proficiency in English among the non-native speakers in the EU. 87 % of Dutch people can speak English well enough to have a conversation with a native speaker.

snowbarbie

I live in Canada but my husband is Dutch. When we were there a few years ago I figured that 75% of his siblings spoke English and of those half of them spoke really good Englilsh.

At the airport all the signs were in Dutch and English, and over all, I found it easy to get around and get service in stores and restaurants.

In small towns the number of English speakers may be lower than in a city that gets lots of tourists.

Aurora

Most of the Dutch people speak English really, thatÂ´s a fact. Sorry donÂ´t know the percentage, but besides the English and Irish, of course, IÂ´m quite sure that in the Netherlands people speak the best and most English compared to people in other European countries!

Asian Mami

I would say about 70% of the Dutch speak english.

slick_3501

I don't know the percentage either, but I know it's almost all. They learn it in school from an early age and its around all the time... movies, TV shows, etc.

dutchcutie68

just about everyone here speaks english, it's now something they teach in grammer school already and since we have subtitles and most music is in english we learn quick, it's just that some are afraid to speak it, afraid they would make mistakes or sound stupid, but we can all speak english

Marlieke89

I don't know. but almost everyone speaks it, exept for a few elder people maybe and young children

lisaâ™¥

i think there are quite a lot people in the netherlands who can speak english.
i mean, it depends on your age (my grandparents don't know ANY english words and little children don't as well) and the level of high-school stuff your studying. but i mean, i'm still on high school and i think i can have quite good conversations with english people. there are people at my school who just talk english to eachother, though they're not english at all. ..
i think english is quite easy to learn for dutch people, because it's pretty similar. but, yeah there are a lot of people who think their english is amazing, but actually make a lot of stupid mistakes and are not really able to make easy conversations with english people.

actually, i wish english became the native language of the netherlands, but i think that's not going to happen in the next zillion years.

Willeke

Although I am pleased with all the complimentary comments and percentages, I have to put a note to it.

While most Dutch do speak English, many do speak it less than perfect.
Good enough to chat with a tourist, but not good enough to represent a company in an meeting with native speakers.

Most Dutch learn to speak informal English, but nearly non can speak formal English with someone with a higher status, even worse, most Dutch are not even aware that you need to adjust your English in that case.

So yes, more than 50% of the Dutch speak English good enough not to be embarrest speaking it with you, but only a few percent will speak it good enough not to embarres you when they represent you at a business meeting with important English speakers.

I'm not sure but Go Tribe in 2008!!

josh_huth

Actually most people speak english fluently there. My mom lived in Sweden for two years when she first got out of high school. She said that the people she lived with spoke perfect english they just wouldnt around her. She said it was so my mom was forced to learn Swedish.

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