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Language · Indo-European

German

Deutsch – its own name

Official or co-official in 6 countries. Listed in 28 countries.

Speakers (estimate): c. 143 million; sum over countries per CLDR, including second-language users
Family: Indo-European; Germanic › West Germanic
Script: Latin
Codes: de · deu; Glottolog stan1295

Where it is spoken

Official 3
Co-official 3
Regional 3
Widely used 7
Minority 12

Official

Germany 91% 77 million
Austria 97% 8.7 million
Liechtenstein 100% 40 thousand

Co-official

Switzerland 76% 6.7 million
Official in 17 cantons; Bern, Fribourg, Valais and Graubünden are multilingual.
Belgium 22% 2.6 million
Official in the German-speaking Community – nine municipalities in the east of Liège province.
Luxembourg 63% 423 thousand

Regional

Poland 19% 7.4 million
A minority language; auxiliary in municipalities of the Opole region and Upper Silesia.
Denmark 47% 2.8 million
The language of the German minority in South Jutland.
Italy 1.6% 975 thousand
Co-official in South Tyrol (province of Bolzano).

Widely used

Netherlands 71% 13 million
Hungary 18% 1.8 million
Czechia 15% 1.6 million
Slovakia 22% 1.2 million
Finland 18% 1.0 million
Slovenia 42% 881 thousand
Lithuania 14% 368 thousand

Minority

United Kingdom 9% 6.2 million
France 5% 3.4 million
Brazil 0.8% 1.8 million
United States 0.5% 1.6 million
Kazakhstan 6.4% 1.3 million
Russia 0.8% 1.1 million
Bulgaria 8% 543 thousand
Greece 5% 523 thousand
Canada 1.2% 466 thousand
Paraguay 2.9% 218 thousand
Romania 0.2% 38 thousand
Namibia 0.9% 25 thousand

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