Within the 28 countries of the European Union, the study of the English as a foreign language was undertaken by an astonishing 96.7% of all lower secondary students in 2012.
English far outstripped the study of French (34%), German (22%) and Spanish (12%).
In 2005, already 90% of students were taking up English and the numbers have only increased since then.
Students in Portugal seemed to be bucking the trend. In 2005, 98.3% of lower secondary school students studied English, but by 2012 this had fallen back to 86.4%.
Portugal was the only EU country where there was a meaningful drop in the study of English. In Spain, the level remained consistent around 98%.
Just over half of lower secondary students (57%) in Portugal were studying French in 2012, but this was a massive drop from the 88% were studied it in 2005.
Very few (0.5%) studied German in 2012 but there was a hefty increase in the study of Spanish (from 1% in 2005 to 216% in 2012).
Belgium appears to be the country with the lowest uptake of any foreign language, with only 45% taking English, 0.8% German and no one at all learning Spanish.
Luxembourg had the next lowest level for English, but there 100% of pupils studied both French and German. Both of these are official languages of the country, along with Luxembourgish.
For the EU, there are no fewer than 24 official languages recognised. In addition, there are a number of regional, minority languages as well as those which have been introduced by migrants.
