Indo-European · ISO 639-3 gle · ga
Irish Language Gaeilge
Irish is an Indo-European language spoken by about 1.1 million people in 2 countries. It is an official language of Ireland. It is written in the Latin and Gaelic Latin scripts.
Where Irish is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Irish
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Celtic
- Nuclear Celtic
- Core Celtic
- Insular Celtic
- Goidelic
- Modern Goidelic
- Irish
Writing system
Latin and Gaelic Latin scripts
Related languages
About the Irish language
Irish (Gaeilge) is spoken by about 1.1 million people, which makes it the 445th most spoken language in the world — just behind Dan (1.1 million) and ahead of Gamo (1.1 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Modern Goidelic group within the Celtic branch.
Where is Irish spoken?
Irish is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Ireland (1.2 million) and United Kingdom (102,688).
Share of the population that speaks Irish: Ireland 22% (1.2 million) and United Kingdom 0.2% (102,688).
Irish is an official language in 1 country: Ireland. It also has regional official status in United Kingdom.
Writing system and status
Irish is written in the Latin and Gaelic Latin scripts. Glottolog classifies it as vulnerable, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Scottish Gaelic, Manx and Welsh.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ga, ISO 639-3 gle.
Frequently asked questions about Irish
How many people speak Irish?
Where is Irish spoken?
In which countries is Irish an official language?
What language family does Irish belong to?
What is Irish called in Irish?
Is Irish 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.