Dubai ranked lowest in English language proficiency in EF Education First’s ranking of 25 global cities released last week.

Zurich can boast about having the best English

At the other end of the spectrum, Zurich, Switzerland’s largest urban centre and a global banking hub, can boast about having the best English skills among the cities surveyed in the EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI).

National data suggest that Paris is the most visited city in the world, but despite Parisians’ opportunity to practise language skills with millions of English speakers, they still only rank 11th in the survey.

Michael Lu, EF senior vice-president, said: “Tourist destinations can never rest on their laurels. Locations with better English proficiency are better placed to gain share in the $6 trillion tourism market, which accounts for about nine per cent of the global economy.”

Moscow, placed fourth in the index, and St Petersburg, at seventh, are revealed in surveys as among the fastest-growing tourist destinations in Europe.

The top three cities in English ability are all German-speaking, with Frankfurt second and Munich third.

The research also shows that in most cases, people living in big cities are better at English than their compatriots, with the biggest gap lying between Moscow and Russia as a whole.

The English proficiency country scores, which place Sweden at the top among 54 countries and territories, were published in a separate report by EF Education First in October. Research looking specifically at employees, published in November, found the Dutch workforce best at English and the Brazilians the worst.