Indo-European · ISO 639-3 fao · fo
Faroese Language føroyskt
Faroese is an Indo-European language spoken by about 69,150 people in 2 countries. It is an official language of Faroe Islands. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Faroese is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Faroese
About the Faroese language
Faroese (føroyskt) is spoken by about 69,150 people, which makes it the 529th most spoken language in the world — just behind Scottish Gaelic (72,000) and ahead of Chamorro (64,300). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Icelandic-Faroese group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Faroese spoken?
Faroese is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Faroe Islands (50,286) and Denmark (22,697). More than half of the population speaks it in Faroe Islands — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Faroese: Faroe Islands 95% (50,286) and Denmark 0.4% (22,697).
Faroese is an official language in 1 country: Faroe Islands.
Writing system and status
Faroese is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Icelandic, Swedish, Danish, English, German, Nigerian Pidgin and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 fo, ISO 639-3 fao.
Frequently asked questions about Faroese
How many people speak Faroese?
Where is Faroese spoken?
In which countries is Faroese an official language?
What language family does Faroese belong to?
What is Faroese called in Faroese?
Is Faroese 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.