Morocco's English proficiency records steady rise, yet remains low

The Education First English Proficiency Index, which ranks countries with non-native English speakers, placed Morocco 76th out of 116 countries and regions worldwide, with a score of 479 points out of 1,000.

Morocco has maintained a steady performance in the last four three editions of the index, scoring 478 points both in 2023 and 2022 and 477 in 2021. The global average score for the ranking is 477.

The index, considered the world's largest ranking of countries and regions by English skills, categorizes countries into five proficiency levels : «very high proficiency», «high proficiency», «moderate proficiency», «low proficiency», and «very low proficiency». Morocco falls into the «low proficiency» category, which includes the countries with the least English proficiency.

However, in Africa, Morocco ranked ninth, behind South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Tunisia, and Tanzania, but ahead of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Senegal, and Sudan.

Rabat, El Jadida have the highest English profeciency in Morocco

When it comes to English proficiency by city, Rabat scored the highest with 510 points, followed by El Jadida with 497 points, Casablanca with 494 points, Tetouan and Marrakech with 491 points, and Tangier with 489 points.

In terms of regions, Casablanca-Settat led the ranking with 494 points, followed by Rabat-Salé-Kenitra with 493 points, Marrakech-Asfi with 488 points, Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima with 485 points, Fes-Meknes with 476 points, and Souss Massa with 472 points.

Regarding gender differences in English proficiency, men outperformed women. Men scored an average of 487 points, while women scored 471 points out of 1,000.

This year's edition of the EPI was based on a test taken by over 2.1 million people from more than 116 countries and territories. The average age of the global sample was 26.

On the global scale, the Netherlands ranked first, followed by Norway, Singapore, Sweden, and Croatia. At the other end of the spectrum, Rwanda, Côte d'Ivoire, Somalia, and Yemen ranked the lowest.