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(Top) 1 List 2 Notes 3 References

List of languages by number of speakers in Europe

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This is a list of European languages by the number of native speakers in Europe only.

List[edit]

Rank	Name	Native speakers	Total speakers
1	Russian	106,000,000^[1]	160,000,000^[1]
2	German	97,000,000^[2]	170,000,000^[3]
3	French	81,000,000^[4]	210,000,000^[3]
4	Italian	65,000,000^[5]	82,000,000^[3]
5	English	63,000,000^[6]	260,000,000^[3]
6	Spanish	47,000,000^[7]	76,000,000^[3]
7	Polish	38,500,000^[8]
8	Ukrainian	32,600,000^[9]
9	Romanian	24,000,000^[10]	28,000,000^[11]
10	Dutch	22,000,000^[12]
11^[a]	Serbo-Croatian	19,000,000^[13]
11	Turkish	15,752,673^[14]
12	Bavarian	14,000,000^[15]
13	Greek	13,500,000^[16]
14	Hungarian	13,000,000^[17]
15	Swedish	11,100,000^[18]	13,280,000^[18]
16	Czech	10,600,000^[19]
17	Portuguese	10,000,000^[20]	11,000,000^[21]
17	Catalan	10,000,000^[22]
18	Serbian	9,000,000^[23]
19	Bulgarian	7,800,000^[24]
20	Albanian Arbëresh Arvanitika	5,367,000^[25] 5,877,100^[26] (Balkans)
21	Neapolitan	5,700,000^[27]
22	Croatian	5,600,000^[28]
23	Danish	5,500,000^[29]
24	Finnish	5,400,000^[30]
25	Norwegian	5,200,000^[31]
25	Slovak	5,200,000^[32]
27	Swiss German	5,000,000^[33]
28	Mainfränkisch	4,900,000^[34]
29	Sicilian	4,700,000^[35]
30	Tatar	4,300,000^[36]
31	Venetian	3,800,000^[37]
32	Lombard	3,600,000^[38]
33	Belarusian	3,300,000^[39]
34	Lithuanian	3,000,000^[40]
35	Bosnian	2,500,000^[41]
36	Galician	2,400,000^[42]
37	Slovene	2,100,000^[43]
38	Upper Saxon	2,000,000^[44]
39	Irish	1,873,997 (census)^[45] 240,000^[46]
40	Latvian	1,750,000^[47]
41	Piedmontese	1,600,000^[48]
42	Romani	1,500,000^[49]
43	Macedonian	1,400,000^[50]
43	Chechen	1,400,000^[51]
45	Sardinian	1,350,000^[52]
46	Limburgish	1,300,000 (2001)^[53]
47	Bashkir	1,221,000^[54]
48	Chuvash	1,100,000^[55]
49	Estonian	1,165,400^[56]
50	Low German (Low Saxon)	1,000,000^[57]	2,600,000^[57]
	Kazakh	1,000,000^[58]
	Palatinate German	1,000,000^[59]
53	Ripuarian (Platt)	900,000^[60]
54	Swabian German	820,000^[61]
55	Avar	760,000
56	Basque	750,000^[62]
57	Friulan	600,000^[63]
	Walloon	600,000^[64]
	Yiddish	600,000^[65]
60	Welsh	538,000^[66] 899,500^[67]	750,000^[68]
61	Kabardian	530,000^[69]
62	Silesian	522,000^[70]
63	Maltese	520,000^[71]
64	Azerbaijani	500,000^[72]
	Ligurian	500,000^[73]
	Mari	500,000^[74]
	Occitan	500,000^[75]
68	Crimean Tatar	480,000^[76]
69	Frisian	470,000^[77]
70	Kumyk	450,000^[78]
70	Ossetian	450,000^[79]
72	Rhaeto-Romance	370,000^[80]
73	Asturian (Astur-Leonese)	351,791^[81]	641,502^[81]
74	Udmurt	340,000^[82]
75	Luxembourgish	336,000^[83]	386,000^[83]
76	Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino)	320,000^[84]	few^[85]
77	Icelandic	330,000^[86]
78	Karachay-Balkar	300,000^[87]
78	Ingush	300,000^[88]
80	Montenegrin	240,700^[89]
81	Komi	220,000^[90]
81	Zeelandic	220,000^[91]
83	Breton	206,000^[92]
84	Extremaduran	200,000^[93]
84	Picard	200,000^[94]
86	Franco-Provençal (Arpitan)	140,000^[95]
86	Gagauz	140,000^[96]
87	Tabasaran	126,900^[97]
88	Erzya	120,000^[98]
89	Adyghe	117,500^[99]
90	Aromanian	114,000^[100]
91	Scots	110,000^[101]
92	Võro	87,000^[102]
93	Kalmyk	80,500^[103]
94	Faroese	66,150^[104]
95	Scottish Gaelic	57,000^[105]
96	Norman	50,000^[106]
96	Kashubian	50,000^[107]
98	Abaza	49,800^[108]
99	Karelian	36,000^[109]
100	Corsican	30,000^[110]	125,000^[110]
100	Tat	30,000^[111]
102	Aragonese	25,000^[112]	55,000^[113]
103	Sami	23,000^[114]
104	Walser German	20,000^[115]
	Sorbian (Wendish)	20,000^[116]
	Italiot Greek	20,000 native speakers in 1981^[117]	50,000
107	Yenish	16,000^[118]
108	Mirandese	15,000^[119]
109	Silesian German	11,000^[120]
110	Nenets	4,000^[121]
111	Megleno-Romanian	3,000^[122]
112	Kven	2,000-8,000
113	Moksha	2,000^[123]
113	Elfdalian	2,000
115	Vepsian	1,640^[124]
116	Istro-Romanian	1,100^[125]
117	Istriot	900^[126]
118	Cornish	557^[127]
119	Cimbrian	400^[128]
120	Judeo-Italian	250^[129]
121	Manx	230^[130]	2,300^[131]
122	Ingrian	120^[132]
123	Wymysorys	less than 20	70^[133]
124	Latin	dead	only several dozen and definitely less than 100^[134]
unranked	Emilian
unranked	Romagnol

Notes[edit]

^ Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian combined, as fully mutually intelligible varieties of one pluricentric language.

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b L1: 119 million in the Russian Federation (of which c. 83 million in European Russia), 14.3 million in Ukraine, 6.67 million in Belarus, 0.67 million in Latvia, 0.38 million in Estonia, 0.38 million in Moldova. L1+L2: c. 100 million in European Russia, 39 million in Ukraine, 7 million in Belarus, 7 million in Poland, 2 million in Latvia, c. 2 million in the European portion of Kazakhstan, 1.8 million in Moldova, 1.1 million in Estonia. RussianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required).

^ includes: bar Bavarian, cim Cimbrian, ksh Kölsch, sli Lower Silesian, vmf Mainfränkisch, pfl Palatinate German, swg Swabian German, gsw Swiss German, sxu Upper Saxon, wae Walser German, wep Westphalian, wym Wymysorys, yec Yenish, yid Yiddish; see German dialects.

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Europeans and their Languages Archived 6 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Data for EU27 Archived 29 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine, published in 2012.

^ FrenchatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ItalianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ EnglishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ SpanishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ PolishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ UkrainianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ RomanianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ "Româna". unilat.org (in Romanian). Latin Union. Retrieved 2 April 2018.

^ DutchatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Serbo-CroatianatEthnologue (25th ed., 2022)

^ c. 12 million in European Turkey, 0.6 million in Bulgaria, 0.6 million in Cyprus and Northern Cyprus; and 2,679,765 L1 speakers in other countries in Europe according to a Eurobarometer survey in 2012: https://languageknowledge.eu/languages/turkish

^ German dialect, BavarianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ 11 million in Greece, out of 13.4 million in total. GreekatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ HungarianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ^a ^b SwedishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ CzechatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ PortugueseatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ "How Many People Speak Portuguese, And Where Is It Spoken?". Babbel. 2021-04-30.

^ "Informe sobre la Situació de la Llengua Catalana | Xarxa CRUSCAT. Coneixements, usos i representacions del català". blogs.iec.cat.

^ SerbianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ BulgarianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ AlbanianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ "Albanian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 12 December 2018. Population total of all languages of the Albanian macrolanguage.

^ NeapolitanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ CroatianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ DanishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ FinnishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ "Norwegian". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-08-06.

^ SlovakatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ German dialect, Swiss GermanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ German dialect, Main-FranconianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ SicilianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ TataratEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ VenetianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ LombardatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ BelarusianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ LithuanianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ BosnianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ GalicianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ SloveneatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ German dialect, Upper Saxon GermanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ "Education and Irish Language - CSO - Central Statistics Office". www.cso.ie. 2023-05-30. Retrieved 2024-01-29.

^ IrishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ LatvianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ PiedmonteseatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Romani, BalkanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, BalticatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, CarpathianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, FinnishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, SinteatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, VlaxatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Romani, WelshatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ MacedonianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ChechenatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ AA. VV. Calendario Atlante De Agostini 2017, Novara, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, 2016, p. 230

^ "Redirected". Ethnologue. 2019-11-19. Retrieved 2021-03-12.

^ BashkortatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ChuvashatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ EstonianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ^a ^b 2.6 million cited as estimate of all Germans who speak Platt "well or very well" (including L2; 4.3 million cited as the number of all speakers including those with "moderate" knowledge) in 2009. Heute in Bremen. „Ohne Zweifel gefährdet". Frerk Möller im Interview, taz, 21. Februar 2009. However, Wirrer (1998) described Low German as "moribund".Jan Wirrer: Zum Status des Niederdeutschen. In: Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik. 26, 1998, S. 309. The number of native speakers is unknown, estimated at 1 million by SIL Ethnologue. Low GermanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), WestphalianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ About 10 million in Kazakhstan. KazakhatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required). Technically, the westernmost portions of Kazakhstan (Atyrau Region, West Kazakhstan Region) are in Europe, with a total population of less than one million.

^ German dialect, Palatinate GermanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ German dialect, KölschatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ German dialect, Swabian GermanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ (in French) VI° Enquête Sociolinguistique en Euskal herria (Communauté Autonome d'Euskadi, Navarre et Pays Basque Nord) Archived 21 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine (2016).

^ e18|fur|Friulan

^ WalloonatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Total population estimated at 1.5 million as of 1991, of which c. 40% in the Ukraine. YiddishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Eastern YiddishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Western YiddishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ "Welsh language in Wales (Census 2021)". GOV.WALES. Retrieved 2023-03-04.

^ "Welsh language data from the Annual Population Survey: July 2021 to June 2022". GOV.WALES. Retrieved 2022-10-28.

^ Europe, Council of (2010-01-01). Minority Language Protection in Europe: Into a New Decade. Council of Europe. p. 30. ISBN 978-92-871-6727-9. in the United Kingdom, Welsh has 750,000 speakers

^ KabardianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ SilesianatEthnologue (19th ed., 2016)

^ MalteseatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ c. 130,000 in Dagestan. In addition, there are about 0.5 million speakers in immigrant communities in Russia, see #Immigrant communities. AzerbaijaniatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ LigurianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ MariatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ OccitanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required). Includes Auvergnat, Gascon, Languedocien, Limousin, Provençal, Vivaro-Alpine. Most native speakers are in France; their number is unknown, as varieties of Occitan are treated as French dialects with no official status.

^ Crimean TataratEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ FrisianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ "2010 Russian Census". Archived from the original on 6 October 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2022.

^ Total 570,000, of which 450,000 in the Russian Federation. OssetianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Includes Friulian, Romansh, Ladin. FriulianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) LadinatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) RomanschatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ^a ^b III Sociolinguistic Study of Asturias (2017). Euskobarometro.

^ UdmurtatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ^a ^b LuxembourgishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Judaeo-SpanishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ SIL Ethnologue: "Not the dominant language for most. Formerly the main language of Sephardic Jewry. Used in literary and music contexts." ca. 100k speakers in total, most of them in Israel, small communities in the Balkans, Greece, Turkey and in Spain.

^ IcelandicatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Karachay-BalkaratEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ IngushatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ "Montenegro". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-04-29.

^ 220,000 native speakers out of an ethnic population of 550,000. Combines Komi-Permyak (koi) with 65,000 speakers and Komi-Zyrian (kpv) with 156,000 speakers. KomiatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ZeelandicatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ BretonatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ExtremaduranatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ PicardatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Franco-ProvençalatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ GagauzatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ TabassaranatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ErzyaatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ AdygheatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ AromanianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ScotsatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ VõroatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ OiratatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ FaroeseatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Gaelic, ScottishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ JèrriaisatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ KashubianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ AbazaatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ KarelianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ^a ^b CorsicanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ TatatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Judeo-TatatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) 2,000 speakers in the Russian Federation according to the 2010 census (including Judeo-Tat). About 28,000 speakers in Azerbaijan; most speakers live along or just north of the Caucasus ridge (and are thus technically in Europe), with some also settling just south of the Caucasus ridge, in the South Caucasus.

^ https://zaguan.unizar.es/record/60448 Report about Census of population 2011 of Aragonese Sociolinguistics Seminar and University of Zaragoza

^ "Más de 50.000 personas hablan aragonés". Aragón Digital. Archived from the original on 1 January 2015.

^ mostly Northern Sami (sma), ca. 20,000 speakers; smaller communities of Lule Sami (smj, c. 2,000 speakers) and other variants. Northern SamiatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Lule SamiatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) Southern SamiatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Kildin SamiatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Skolt SamiatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required), Inari SamiatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required).

^ Highest Alemannic dialects, Walser GermanatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Sorbian, UpperatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ N. Vincent, Italian, in B. Comrie (ed.) The world's major languages, London, Croom Helm, 1981. pp. 279–302.

^ YenishatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ MirandeseatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ German dialect, Lower SilesianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ total 22,000 native speakers (2010 Russian census) out of an ethnic population of 44,000. Most of these are in Siberia, with about 8,000 ethnic Nenets in European Russia (2010 census, mostly in Nenets Autonomous Okrug)

^ Megleno-RomanianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ MokshaatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Russian Census 2010. VepsatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Istro-RomanianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ IstriotatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ UK 2011 Census

^ German dialect, CimbrianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Judeo-ItalianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ ManxatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Whitehead, Sarah (2 April 2015). "How the Manx language came back from the dead". theguardian.com. Retrieved 4 April 2015.

^ IngrianatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Moribund German dialect spoken in Wilamowice, Poland. 70 speakers recorded in 2006. WymysorysatEthnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

^ Contemporary Latin: People fluent in Latin as a second language are probably in the dozens, not hundreds. Reginald Foster (as of 2013) estimated "no more than 100" according to Robin Banerji, Pope resignation: Who speaks Latin these days?, BBC News, 12 February 2013.

v t e Languages of Europe
Sovereign states	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Vatican City
States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Kosovo Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria
Dependencies and other entities	Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard
Other entities	European Union Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Countries and languages lists

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Endonyms and exonyms

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By population	By number of native speakers Europe By number of total speakers Languages in censuses
Bylanguage family	Language families List of Indo-European languages List of Mongolic languages List of Turkic languages List of Uralic languages
Language-based geopolitical organizations	Arab League (Arabic) Dutch Language Union (Dutch) Commonwealth of Nations (English) Latin Union (Romance languages) Three Linguistic Spaces Francophonie (French) Community of Portuguese Language Countries Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa (Portuguese) Hispanidad (Spanish) Organization of Turkic States (Turkic languages) International Organization of Turkic Culture (Turkic languages)
See also	Lists of languages Category:Languages