Indo-European · ISO 639-3 mkd · mk
Macedonian Language македонски
Macedonian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 2.0 million people in 3 countries. It is an official language of North Macedonia. It is written in the Cyrillic and Latin scripts.
Where Macedonian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Macedonian
About the Macedonian language
Macedonian (македонски) is spoken by about 2.0 million people, which makes it the 306th most spoken language in the world — just behind Khandesi (2.0 million) and ahead of Lomwe (2.0 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Macedo-Bulgarian group within the Balto-Slavic branch.
Where is Macedonian spoken?
Macedonian is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in North Macedonia (1.4 million), Greece (167,377) and Albania (14,603). More than half of the population speaks it in North Macedonia — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Macedonian: North Macedonia 67% (1.4 million), Greece 1.6% (167,377) and Albania 0.5% (14,603).
Macedonian is an official language in 1 country: North Macedonia.
Writing system and status
Macedonian is written in the Cyrillic and Latin scripts. 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 Bulgarian, Slovenian, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 mk, ISO 639-3 mkd.
Frequently asked questions about Macedonian
How many people speak Macedonian?
Where is Macedonian spoken?
In which countries is Macedonian an official language?
What language family does Macedonian belong to?
What is Macedonian called in Macedonian?
Is Macedonian 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.