Indo-European · ISO 639-3 sqi · sq
Albanian Language Shqip
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 7.5 million people in 6 countries. It is an official language of Albania. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Albanian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Albanian
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Albanian
- Albanian
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Albanian language
Albanian (Shqip) is spoken by about 7.5 million people. It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Albanian group within the Albanian branch.
Where is Albanian spoken?
Albanian is used in 6 countries. The largest communities live in Albania (3.1 million), Serbia (1.3 million), North Macedonia (533,905), Montenegro (47,388) and Türkiye (17,665). More than half of the population speaks it in Albania — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Albanian: Albania 100% (3.1 million), Serbia 19% (1.3 million), North Macedonia 25% (533,905), Montenegro 7.9% (47,388), Türkiye <0.1% (17,665) and Greece <0.1% (10,042).
Albanian is an official language in 1 country: Albania. It also has regional official status in North Macedonia.
Writing system and status
Albanian is written in the Latin script.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Gheg Albanian and Tosk Albanian.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 sq, ISO 639-3 sqi.
Frequently asked questions about Albanian
How many people speak Albanian?
Where is Albanian spoken?
In which countries is Albanian an official language?
What language family does Albanian belong to?
What is Albanian called in Albanian?
Is Albanian an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.