The chart presents a comparison of the linguistic proficiency of British students at a university in England in 2000 and 2010, highlighting the proportion of students able to speak languages other than English.
The data reveals a notable shift in the language proficiency of students between the two years, with some languages experiencing a significant increase, while others witnessed a decline.
In 2000, the majority of students, comprising 30%, were proficient in Spanish, followed by 20% who spoke no other language. Meanwhile, 15% of students spoke French, and a similar proportion spoke another language. Notably, only 10% of students were able to speak two other languages. In contrast, by 2010, there was a significant increase in the proportion of students speaking Spanish, which rose to 35%, and those speaking another language, which rose to 20%. Furthermore, the percentage of students speaking two other languages also increased to 15%.
On the other hand, the proportion of students who spoke no other language decreased from 20% to 10% between 2000 and 2010. Similarly, the percentage of students speaking French dropped to 10%. The only category that remained relatively consistent was German, with 10% of students speaking the language in both years. Overall, the data suggests a trend towards British students becoming more linguistically diverse over the decade.