World Language Map

Languages spoken in Switzerland

16 living languages are mapped in Switzerland. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is German (76% of the population). 15 of them belong to the Indo-European family.

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Switzerland at a glance

  • 16living languages
  • 1language family
  • 8.9 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 10with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Switzerland. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in Switzerland

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
GermanIndo-European76%6,734,033Not endangered
Central AlemannicIndo-European66%5,847,976Threatened
EnglishIndo-European45%3,987,256Not endangered
FrenchIndo-European39%3,455,622Not endangered
ItalianIndo-European15%1,329,086Not endangered
LombardIndo-European4.1%363,283Not endangered
PortugueseIndo-European3.4%301,259Not endangered
RomanshIndo-European0.5%44,303Threatened
Sinte-Manus RomaniIndo-European0.3%25,696Not endangered
WalserIndo-European0.1%9,747Threatened
ArpitanIndo-EuropeanShifting
Balkan RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
BavarianIndo-EuropeanThreatened
Central RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
Vlax RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
YenicheunclassifiedShifting

Read more: where is German spoken?

Language families in Switzerland

About these numbers

The list of languages in Switzerland comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Switzerland

How many languages are spoken in Switzerland?

16 living languages are mapped in Switzerland, from one family. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Switzerland?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, German is spoken by 76% of the population, about 6,734,033 people, followed by Central Alemannic (66%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Switzerland?

Indo-European (15 languages).

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.