Europeans and their Languages
1 min readMay 15, 2020
The most broadly spoken mother language in Europe is Russian, with 135 million of it’s 170 million speakers. The Russian language covers most of modern-day Russia and several of the post-Soviet countries.
The second most broadly spoken mother language in Europe is German (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Czechia) with 95 million speakers followed by English, Italian and French.
English is the most broadly spoken foreign language throughout Europe. Thirty-eight percent of EU residents have enough skills in English to have a conversation. Fourteen percent of Europeans know either French or German, with their mother language.
