German is a West Germanic language that originated in Europe. It is one of the world’s largest languages, with nearly 85 million native speakers and more than 140 million speakers in total. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language after English.
The German language has had very great importance in culture, science, philosophy, and trade worldwide. In many European countries, students have the opportunity to study German from an early age. German is the fourth most studied language in Europe, after English, Spanish, and French.
Which countries have German as an official language
- Germany – approximately 80 million speak German
- Austria – approximately 8.6 million speak German
- Switzerland – approximately 5.7 million speak German
- Belgium – approximately 2.6 million speak German
- Luxembourg – approximately 390,000 speak German
- Liechtenstein – approximately 38,000 speak German
German as a co-official language in certain parts of countries
Although German is not official at the national level, the language has co-official status in the countries listed below. In each of these areas, German is an official language at the administrative level.
- Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, Italy – 357,000 speak German
- Opole Voivodeship, Poland – 40,000 speak German
- Silesian Voivodeship, Poland – 10,000 speak German
German-speaking countries with a significant number of speakers
- Brazil – 1.2 – 3 million speak German
- USA – 1.1 million speak German
- Paraguay – 100,000 speak German as a native language
- Namibia – 31,000 speak German as a native language
- South Africa – 12,000 speak German as a native language