OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2011. Russian as a second language is taught to 65 percent of high school students in Estonia, which is the overall highest figure in the European Union, according to Eurostat.

In Latvia, Russian is learned by 54 percent of secondary school students, while in Lithuania the figure is 35 percent, the statistics reveal.

Nevertheless, the Baltic states are the only three nations where Russian has taken the position of the second most common language taught in both upper and lower secondary levels. In other EU member states, it is either German or French.

In the Baltics, the proportion of students learning English in lower secondary school level is highest in Lithuania (86 percent). Estonia and Latvia share second place with 78 percent.

Like in the rest of the EU, English is the most popular foreign language taught in upper secondary school level, with 97 percent of Latvian students learning it, followed closely by Estonia (96 percent) and Lithuania (91 percent).

Eurostat published the data on language learning to celebrate the 10th European Day of Languages annually held on September 26. The statistics are based on data collected in 2008 or 2009.