I don’t know if I could give you a percentage, but it’s more important in eastern european counries to know a few important phrases.  Many people won’t speak english, but a good amount of people who deal with tourists all day long will have some level of comprehension.

~95%, most of the younger generation took English in school and are eager to practice with you. I don’t know of anyone who learned Hungarian or Czech before going, they are very difficult languages to learn.
 
These are popular cities with tourists and you won’t have any trouble getting around

Slovenia has got to be the most “user friendly in English only” place I’ve ever traveled.  Not only did everyone in the travel industry speak English, they were extremely helpful.  At the tourist info booth in Ljubljana I asked about the bus to the airport.  As opposed to the usual “take bus number 2” answer, I got:  “Take bus number 2.  The stop is right outside this door.  The next bus is in x minutes.  Be sure to take the bus that’s going from your left to your right as you face the street.  The price is x if you pay on the bus, but I can sell you the ticket for less, here.”  The ticket agent at the train station was quick to tell us that buying a reservation on the train to Zagreb was a waste of money.

Croatia was also easy in “English only” but more like Western Europe than the surprisingly fluent Slovenians.

i’ve been to austria, slovenia, Czech rep and hungary last summer, and i must agree with oldlady that slovenia wins the prize ! Austria was pretty good also. It can get a little harder further east i guess, especially in hungary where the language is so hard to speak & understand (for me anyway..). But i never had any real problem. Plus, i think it makes an even better experience when you dont know the language. It really feels like your traveling and doing something out of the ordinary…

If them european people cant speak good english, then I dont see no reason to be going over there.  And england too! if theres any people from england on here, ya’ll need to practice english until you can speak it properly. 

i spent quite a bit of time in austria and was surprised to find that very few people spoke english very well, if at all. i (personally) found it a bit hard communicating with people in austria. i mean, i got around fine, but there were very few people i could actually talk a few sentences with, and who didn’t seem to bear ill will towards me for daring to speak english to them. i developed a bit of a pariah complex when i was there… (though i love austrians still anyways! better than them speaking english, i wish i had known german )

in poland again i found very few people who spoke english, but they were all so charming and nice and willing to try to help or understand, that it was always a pleasant experience interacting with them despite the language barrier.

Everyone who was born in 1979 or later should speak at least some English here. In our school system, children start to learn a foreign language at the age of ten. Until 1989 that language was Russian, after that, English. But the level varies greatly. Usually, if you speak slowly and clearly, and in simple sentences, you should get the answer you need.

You remind me of an episode from IT Crowd series:
“We don’t need no education…”
“Yes, you do. You’ve just used a double negative.”

 
You weren’t that guy I saw over there wearing a “I <3 George Bush” shirt, were you… that may explain some of the hostility [][][]
 
Nah seriously, I’m sure it all depends where you are, and who you happen to be dealing with on any given day. I could say that everyone in Bad Homburg, Germany is a worthless prick, but all I know is that the people at the hostel there when I dropped by are [] 

well i spent a good few weeks in austria, that’s how determined i was to give it a chance (and don’t get me wrong, i loved it, and am planning on going back). i think in retrospect i may have just been ultra sensitive at the time and that may have shaped my perspective of them as a miserable joyless lot. i was a bit lonely at the time and may have been wearing a perpetual scowl that made everyone react negatively to me, i don’t know… however, i went back to austria a second time, to graz specifically, and that time everyone i encountered was extremely nice. which was nice. []

I’d have to rank Vienna as the most “unfriendly to Americans” place I’ve ever been. While the hotel staff was extremely helpful at the Best Western Erzherzog Rainer (great place, BTW), the staff at other hotels and at tourist information was downright rude.

I understand enough German to know what the guicci loafer set (and there seemed to be hundreds of them) was saying at the sidewalk cafes — really ugly comments about the tourists — Americans in particular, and this was before Iraq.  I assumed they were locals — but maybe German tourists???

just a reply to your comment…..
 
im english and from england carnt understand why you said we english people need to learn to speak english better,seen as english is our language….it started here,if anyone can spek english propely its the english.
english came to your country much later.
 
no desrespect intended.