Lithuanians Among European Union Multilinguals

The recent public opinion analysis “Europeans and Languages” by the European Commission http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_237.en.pdf has revealed that Lithuanians are one of the most multilingual EU Members.
The results of the survey show that Lithuania is among 5 EU Members with the highest percentage of people speaking at least one foreign language. Even 90 % of Lithuanians can speak at least one other language than their mother tongue. In comparison, the survey reveals that about 50 % of the citizens of the Member States can speak at least one foreign language.

English, which is the most widely known language in the EU, Russian, standing no. 4 on the list, and Polish are among the most widely spoken languages besides the mother tongue in Lithuania. A great part of Lithuanians can speak even two foreign languages, mostly Russian and English.

The survey was fielded in 25 EU Member States, and, in addition, in the accession countries (Bulgaria and Romania), the candidate countries (Croatia and Turkey), and among the Turkish Cypriot Community.