Where Brazil Speaks English: A State-by-State Map
Yurii Rebryk · Updated · 6 min read
In Brazil’s South and Southeast, almost one in three Fluently learners speaks English at B2 or above. In the North and Northeast, just over one in five does. B2, or upper intermediate, is the fourth of six levels on the A1–C2 scale that language schools and exams use. At B2 you can hold a conversation, argue a point and follow a meeting without a script.
Fluently is an app where people practice speaking English with an AI tutor. From those conversations, it gives each learner a Fluently score: an English level on that same A1–C2 scale. We took the scores of 23,423 learners, matched each one to the state they live in and built a map of spoken English in Brazil. Three things stand out.
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In this article
- Learners measured
- 23,423
- States measured
- 13 of 27
- B2 or above in the South and Southeast
- 31%
- B2 or above in the North and Northeast
- 22%
The map
Each state is in one of three groups: top, middle or bottom. Hover over or tap a state to see its share, the margin of error and how many learners the number is based on. Gray states don’t have enough learners yet for a reliable number.
Keep in mind who these learners are: people who study English on Fluently, not the population as a whole. So the map doesn’t show how many Brazilians speak English. It shows how well the Brazilians who are learning it speak.
Interactive map
Hover over or tap a state, or use Tab on a keyboard.
Learners who speak at B2 or above
Learners using the app in Portuguese, May 2025 to July 2026.
- 29% or more · top groupFederal District 29% · Rio de Janeiro 31% · Rio Grande do Sul 32% · São Paulo 32%
- 22% to 28% · middle groupCeará 24% · Minas Gerais 28% · Paraná 26% · Pernambuco 25% · Santa Catarina 27%
- 21% or less · bottom groupBahia 20% · Espírito Santo 19% · Goiás 21% · Pará 19%
- Not enough learners · 14 statesAcre, Alagoas, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Rondônia, Roraima, Sergipe, Tocantins
Show all the numbers in a table
| State | Region | B2 or above | Margin of error | Learners | Words per minute | Live abroad | Margin of error | Answers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazonas | North | — | — | — | — | 18% | 14–21% | 476 |
| Bahia | Northeast | 20% | 17–23% | 843 | 82 | 17% | 15–18% | 1,789 |
| Ceará | Northeast | 24% | 21–28% | 589 | 80 | 15% | 13–17% | 1,232 |
| Espírito Santo | Southeast | 19% | 15–23% | 408 | 81 | 17% | 14–19% | 841 |
| Federal District | Central-West | 29% | 26–32% | 888 | 83 | 16% | 14–18% | 1,579 |
| Goiás | Central-West | 21% | 18–25% | 557 | 83 | 18% | 16–20% | 1,134 |
| Maranhão | Northeast | — | — | — | — | 17% | 14–20% | 506 |
| Mato Grosso | Central-West | — | — | — | — | 19% | 15–22% | 491 |
| Mato Grosso do Sul | Central-West | — | — | — | — | 17% | 14–21% | 406 |
| Minas Gerais | Southeast | 28% | 26–30% | 2,275 | 84 | 15% | 14–16% | 4,364 |
| Pará | North | 19% | 15–24% | 315 | 79 | 16% | 13–18% | 768 |
| Paraíba | Northeast | — | — | — | — | 18% | 15–22% | 461 |
| Paraná | South | 26% | 24–28% | 1,379 | 83 | 15% | 13–16% | 2,738 |
| Pernambuco | Northeast | 25% | 22–29% | 590 | 81 | 15% | 13–17% | 1,178 |
| Rio de Janeiro | Southeast | 31% | 29–33% | 2,995 | 84 | 13% | 12–14% | 5,263 |
| Rio Grande do Norte | Northeast | — | — | — | — | 14% | 11–18% | 441 |
| Rio Grande do Sul | South | 32% | 29–35% | 1,065 | 83 | 15% | 13–16% | 1,816 |
| Santa Catarina | South | 27% | 24–30% | 1,110 | 83 | 15% | 14–17% | 2,314 |
| São Paulo | Southeast | 32% | 31–33% | 10,409 | 85 | 12% | 12–13% | 18,805 |
Not enough learners yet: Acre, Alagoas, Amapá, Piauí, Rondônia, Roraima, Sergipe, Tocantins.
English splits Brazil the way income does
In the South and Southeast, 31% of learners speak at B2 or above. In the North and Northeast, 22% do. That’s the same line that divides Brazil by income.
São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul have the highest shares, 32% each, followed by Rio de Janeiro (31%) and the Federal District (29%). At the bottom are Pará and Espírito Santo (19% each), Bahia (20%) and Goiás (21%). The margins of error overlap, so we put the states into three groups instead of ranking them from 1 to 13.
The line isn’t perfectly straight. The Central-West is split: the Federal District is in the top group and Goiás in the bottom one. In the Northeast, Ceará (24%) and Pernambuco (25%) are in the same group as Paraná and Santa Catarina in the South. And Espírito Santo, in the Southeast, is in the bottom group.
Learners who speak at B2 or above
By state. The black lines show the margin of error.
A test is not a conversation
The EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) ranks Brazil’s states using an online test of reading and listening. The Fluently score comes from conversation. In the EF EPI 2025, São Paulo ranks tenth among the states. In conversation, it shares first place with Rio Grande do Sul. Understanding English on a test and speaking it in a conversation are different skills.
Brazilian English has its own tells
Filler words differ by country. “Okay” is the most common one among Brazilians: 20% of learners use it, about the same share as in the rest of the world. Brazil stands out for “things” (16%, against 11% worldwide) and, above all, “too” (11%, against 7%): 1.6 times the world average.
A possible reason: “too” is the obvious translation of the Portuguese “também” (“me too,” “I like it too”), and “things” stands in for “coisas,” the word Brazilians reach for when they can’t find the right one.
Filler words: Brazil and the world
Share of learners who use the word as a filler
Two sounds give Brazilians away: /n/ and /l/. 42% of Brazilian learners get the /n/ wrong, against 28% worldwide, and 24% get the /l/ wrong, against 16%. Both are 1.5 times the world average.
Portuguese is the likely cause. At the end of a syllable, Brazilians turn L into U: they write “Brasil” and say “Brasiu.” In English, that makes “feel” sound like “fiu” and “school” like “scuu.” Something similar happens with N. In “bom” or “sim,” the tongue never touches the roof of the mouth, and only a nasal vowel is left. But “ten,” “man” and “phone” need a full N.
Hardest sounds: Brazil and the world
Share of learners who get the sound wrong
How we did it
- Who we measured. 23,423 Fluently learners in 13 Brazilian states, scored between May 2025 and July 2026. Each of them spoke at least 300 words with the tutor. We counted only people who use the app in Portuguese, because people who switch the app to English tend to speak better and would skew the comparison.
- What the Fluently score is. Fluently’s AI tutor holds open conversations with learners and rates how they speak on the A1–C2 scale that language schools and exams use. “B2 or above” means a learner was rated B2, C1 or C2.
- Which states are on the map. A state appears if at least 300 of its learners were scored, or at least 300 answered the question about their goal. The other states are gray.
- How we know the state. From where the internet connection was when a learner signed up. For learners who also shared their phone’s location, the two match 88% of the time in Brazil. Location mistakes blur the differences, so the real gaps between regions are probably a little larger.
- Margin of error. Every share comes with a margin of error: the range where the real figure lies 19 times out of 20. States with fewer learners have wider margins. Speed is the typical value for a state and has no margin of error.
- National figures and goals. The filler words and sounds are national figures: they include every Fluently learner in Brazil, whatever language their app is in, compared with Fluently learners worldwide. The map’s “live abroad” layer comes from a question every new learner answers: what they want English for.
- Comparison with EF. The EF EPI scores reading and listening in an online test; we score conversation. São Paulo’s place comes from the EF EPI 2025 state ranking.
- Limits. Everyone we measured had already decided to learn English with Fluently, so the results describe learners, not Brazil’s population. Location data can be wrong, and states with few learners have wide margins of error.
- Privacy. We publish only totals for groups of at least 300 people. No individual data leaves Fluently.
Which group would you be in?
Talk to Fluently’s AI tutor for a few minutes to get your own Fluently score and see which sounds and filler words give your accent away.
For journalists
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Contact
For interviews or more data: [email protected]
How to cite: Fluently, “Where Brazil Speaks English: A State-by-State Map,” November 2026.
