Indo-European · ISO 639-3 deu · de
German Language Deutsch
German is an Indo-European language spoken by about 92 million people in 28 countries. It is an official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. It is written in the Latin script.
Where German is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak German
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- High German
- Upper German
- Middle-Modern High German
- Modern High German
- Upper Franconian
- Global German
- German
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
All 28 countries
| Country | Speakers | Share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
 Germany | 76,548,381 | 91% | Official |
 Netherlands | 12,618,404 | 71% | — |
 Austria | 8,698,940 | 97% | Official |
 Poland | 7,361,797 | 19% | Regional official |
 Switzerland | 6,734,033 | 76% | Official |
 United Kingdom | 6,161,319 | 9% | — |
 France | 3,418,730 | 5% | — |
 Denmark | 2,807,375 | 47% | Regional official |
 Belgium | 2,635,072 | 22% | Official |
 Brazil | 1,848,436 | 0.84% | — |
 Hungary | 1,774,035 | 18% | — |
 Czechia | 1,625,685 | 15% | — |
 United States | 1,607,226 | 0.47% | — |
 Kazakhstan | 1,296,640 | 6.4% | — |
 Slovakia | 1,224,003 | 22% | — |
 Russia | 1,112,485 | 0.79% | — |
 Finland | 1,012,753 | 18% | — |
 Italy | 975,438 | 1.6% | — |
 Slovenia | 881,113 | 42% | — |
 Bulgaria | 542,612 | 8% | — |
 Greece | 523,055 | 5% | — |
 Canada | 465,537 | 1.2% | — |
 Luxembourg | 422,890 | 63% | Official |
 Lithuania | 367,946 | 14% | — |
 Paraguay | 218,153 | 2.9% | — |
 Liechtenstein | 40,272 | 100% | Official |
 Romania | 38,111 | 0.21% | — |
 Namibia | 25,232 | 0.9% | — |
About the German language
German (Deutsch) is spoken by about 92 million people, which makes it the 17th most spoken language in the world — just behind Marathi (93 million) and ahead of Javanese (91 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Global German group within the Germanic branch.
Where is German spoken?
German is used in 28 countries. The largest communities live in Germany (77 million), Netherlands (13 million), Austria (8.7 million), Poland (7.4 million) and Switzerland (6.7 million). More than half of the population speaks it in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Netherlands — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks German: Germany 91% (77 million), Netherlands 71% (13 million), Austria 97% (8.7 million), Poland 19% (7.4 million), Switzerland 76% (6.7 million) and United Kingdom 9% (6.2 million).
German is an official language in 6 countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. It also has regional official status in Poland and Denmark.
Writing system and status
German is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Mainfränkisch, Bavarian, Swiss German, Hunsrik, Upper Saxon, Limburgan and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 de, ISO 639-3 deu.
Frequently asked questions about German
How many people speak German?
Where is German spoken?
In which countries is German an official language?
What language family does German belong to?
What is German called in German?
Is German 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.