Not been my experience but I guess it depends a lot on what you mean by proficiency. Also depends where you are and who you talk to. In the Nordics I never enco

Not been my experience but I guess it depends a lot on what you mean by proficiency. Also depends where you are and who you talk to. In the Nordics I never encountered a young person who wasn't nearly fluent in English. In bigger countries like Germany you can easily find people who don't speak English but they tend to themselves be immigrants and e.g. working in shops. Germans themselves learn it in school and do better.