Delft and Amsterdam are the most “English” Dutch local authorities, according to research by online language school Preply.

Both cities scored 64 points in the ranking, which is based on the number of tourists, foreign residents, students and job opportunities that don’t require Dutch.

Both cities are very popular with tourists and have a large number of foreign students, which has helped shape the local language use. In Delft, for example, more than 25% of the university’s student body come from abroad. And in Amsterdam, 21% of vacancies on the Indeed jobs board were in English.

The Hague was third in the ranking with 55 points while Eindhoven and Leiden complete the top five. The three cities where you are least likely to hear English spoken on the streets are Zwolle, Leeuwarden and Heerlen.

The rise of English as a day-to-day language in the Netherlands has not gone unnoticed among the local population and many readers in the recent Dutch News survey on discrimination reported facing problems because they did not yet speak the local language.

In total, 31% of respondents who had faced discrimination in the Netherlands said it was because they did not speak Dutch, and 12.5% said it was because they were speaking another language.

Many respondents also spoke about feeling isolated at work because their colleagues communicated in Dutch, even though the official company or university department language was English.

“While grocery shopping and practicing my Dutch (but not getting it right) a random lady yelled at me to learn Dutch,” one respondent said. Another student who was working in a café was told by customers to speak Dutch. “I literally only got the job because no one who already spoke Dutch wanted it,” she said.

The new right-wing government has pledged to slash the number of English language courses at universities and colleges, and to reduce the number of people coming to the Netherlands to work.