Map of the percentage of population able to speak Russian in the EU by country

Map of the percentage of population able to speak Russian in the EU by country

by Jakub Marian 

Rus­sian used to be the first for­eign lan­guage most in­hab­it­ants of the former East­ern Bloc learned. Un­der­stand­ably, the num­ber of Rus­sian speak­ers has been de­clin­ing since the fall of the iron cur­tain, as Rus­sian ceased to be an ob­lig­at­ory sub­ject in most of those coun­tries. Nev­er­the­less, it is still one of the most pop­u­lar for­eign lan­guages spoken in the re­gion. 
In fact, there are still more speak­ers of Rus­sian than Eng­lish in Es­to­nia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and even in the rest of the former East­ern Bloc, Rus­sian is not lag­ging much be­hind Eng­lish. 
The map is based on the “Spe­cial Euroba­ro­meter 386” and on the num­ber of nat­ive Rus­sian speak­ers in the re­spect­ive coun­tries (the data is from 2012, so Croa­tia is not in­cluded). 

( https://jakubmarian.com/map-of-the-percentage-of-population-able-to-speak-russian-in-the-eu-by-country/ )