World Language Map

Languages spoken in Ukraine

27 living languages are mapped in Ukraine. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is Ukrainian (65% of the population). They belong to 4 language families, the largest being Indo-European (14 languages).

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 Ukraine at a glance

  • 27living languages
  • 4language families
  • 35.7 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 11with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Ukraine. 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 Ukraine

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
UkrainianIndo-European65%23,180,170Threatened
RussianIndo-European46%16,404,428Not endangered
PolishIndo-European2.4%855,883Not endangered
Eastern YiddishIndo-European1.3%463,603Not endangered
RusynIndo-European1.2%427,942Threatened
BelarusianIndo-European0.8%295,993Threatened
Crimean TatarTurkic0.6%199,706Threatened
RomanianIndo-European0.5%185,441Not endangered
BulgarianIndo-European0.5%174,743Not endangered
TurkishTurkic0.4%149,780Not endangered
HungarianUralic0.4%131,949Not endangered
Balkan RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
BashkirTurkicThreatened
Central RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
ErzyaUralicShifting
GagauzTurkicThreatened
KaraimTurkicNearly extinct
Kipchak UrumTurkicShifting
KrymchakTurkicNearly extinct
LakNakh-DaghestanianThreatened
LezgianNakh-DaghestanianThreatened
Modern GreekIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
North-Central DargwaNakh-DaghestanianThreatened
Sinte-Manus RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
SlovakIndo-EuropeanThreatened
TatarTurkicNot endangered
Vlax RomaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered

Read more: where is Ukrainian spoken?

Language families in Ukraine

About these numbers

The list of languages in Ukraine 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 Ukraine

How many languages are spoken in Ukraine?

27 living languages are mapped in Ukraine, from 4 families. 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 Ukraine?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Ukrainian is spoken by 65% of the population, about 23,180,170 people, followed by Russian (46%). 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 Ukraine?

Indo-European (14 languages), Turkic (8 languages), Nakh-Daghestanian (3 languages) and Uralic (2 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.