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This is a list of European languages by the number of native speakers in Europe only.
Five languages have more than 50 million native speakers in Europe: Russian, English, French, Italian, and German. Russian is the most-spoken native language in Europe, [4] and English has the largest number of speakers in total, including some 200 million speakers of English as a second or foreign language. (See English language in Europe .)
List of official, national and spoken Languages of Europe. Europe is a continent with many countries (about 50) and almost each country has its own language, known as the national language. Some countries have even more than one national language.
- Russian
- German
- French
- Italian
- English
- Spanish
- Polish
- Ukrainian
- Romanian
- Dutch
160,000,000 native speakers
The Russian language has about 160 million native speakers. It is the official language of 4 different countries (Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan). It’s also commonly spoken in former Soviet countries like Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, and Ukraine. In addition to being one of the most spoken languages on Earth, it’s also the language of space! Astronauts have to learn Russian before launching into space because the International Space Station uses both Russian and English. If you w...
97,000,000 native speakers
The second most spoken language in Europe is German. There are around 97 million native German speakers. They mostly come from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, but you can also find some in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Lichtenstein. Even though it’s the second most spoken language in Europe, German is actually the most spoken language in the European Union (EU). You’d be surprised how much German you already know if you speak English – they share about 60% of their vocabulary! To start learning...
71,500,000 native speakers
French is the next language on the list and it has around 71.5 million native speakers. Close to 20% of people in the European Union speak French as a native or second language. French is also the second most-taught language in the world behind English. The language shares about 45% of its vocabulary with English, although the grammar and pronunciation are pretty different. If you learn French, you’ll be able to talk with people in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Monaco. This li...
65,000,000 native speakers
Italian is the fourth language on the list and there are around 65 million native speakers. It’s the official language of Italy, San Marino, and the Vatican City (along with Latin). There are also quite a few Italian speakers scattered around the globe, including 700,000 in the United States. An interesting fact about the Italian language is that it only has 21 letters. You won’t see any Italian words with J, K, W, X and Y. You may also notice people speaking different dialects of the languag...
63,000,000 native speakers
While there are only 63 million native English speakers in Europe, there are over 1 billion in the world. That’s because English is the most spoken language in the world. 63 million is still quite a bit in Europe though. You’ll mostly find native English speakers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. English is one of the fastest growing languages in terms of vocabulary, too. Hundreds of new words find their way into the official dictionaries every year. While it may be easy to learn new vocabul...
47,000,000 native speakers
Most native Spanish speakers come from the Americas, but there’s still an astounding 47 million of them in Europe. Not surprisingly, most native Spanish speakers in Europe live in Spain. You may be surprised to learn that quite a few live in neighboring countries like France and Portugal though. In fact, almost 10% of France’s population speaks Spanish as a native language. If you want to learn it, you can read through these apps to learn Spanish.
38,500,000 native speakers
There are around 38.5 million native Polish speakers. Most of them come from Poland, but you can also find native speakers in the Czech Republic, Belarus, Ukraine, and other nearby countries. English and Polish share a few of the same words, but they’re mostly all related to food. Examples include kielbasa (a sausage) and pierogies (a type of dumpling). Polish also has some similarities to other Slavic languages, like Serbian, Russian, and Ukrainian. You can check out these Polish learning ap...
32,600,000 native speakers
There are around 32.6 million native Ukrainian speakers. While the majority of them live in Ukraine, you can also hear Ukrainian in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, and Slovakia. One of the biggest misconceptions about Ukrainian is that it’s closely related to Russian. It’s actually more related to Belarusian, Czech, Slovakian, Polish, Croatian, and Bulgarian. Most of these are also some of the most spoken languages in Europe! Take a look at some of the best apps to learn Ukra...
24,000,000 native speakers
Romanian is the next language on the list with about 24 million native speakers. Although you may native speakers only come from Romania, that’s not true. Romanian is also the official language of Moldova (sometimes called Moldovan). It’s a romance language, which means it shares common roots with Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French. You may be surprised how much Romanian you understand if you’ve learned another romance language! Check out these Romanian learning appsif you want to start...
22,000,000 native speakers
Dutch follows closely behind Romanian in terms of native speakers. There are around 22 million native Dutch speakers, and most of them come from the Netherlands and Belgium. Outside of Europe, Dutch is also the official language of Aruba, Curaçao, and St. Maarten. It’s a Germanic language, which means it’s pretty closely related to English and German. It’s also somewhat (although not very) mutually-intelligible with Afrikaans, the language of South Africa. A lot of apps can help you learn it,...
Jun 22, 2021 · We’ll break down the 10 most spoken languages in Europe so you can decide which one is the most practical for your travels. The Most Spoken Languages In Europe. 1. Russian. Perhaps a surprise for many individuals, Russian tops this list as the most spoken language in Europe with roughly 140 million native speakers on the continent! This is ...
Mar 21, 2015 · Europe is home to 24 official languages, while about 200 languages are used over the continent. The 10 most spoken languages in Europe: Russian, German, French, Turkish, Italian, English, Spanish, Polish, Ukrainian, and Dutch.
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By clicking any language or country, you can easily explore which languages are most widely spoken in European countries, which countries are most fluent in a language, how language knowledge has changed from one generation to another, and compare mother tongue speakers to foreign language speakers.
