Europe is home to a huge range of cultures, countries and lifestyles. With 48 countries, there’s a vast range of languages spoken across the continent.
The land is home to almost 750 million people, across an area of 19.53 million square kilometres. According to Worldometer, Europe’s population is equivalent to 9.04% of the total world population. There are over 200 languages spoken throughout the continent. In each country, the second most spoken language, after the official one, varies significantly.
The most common second language is English, which is spoken by a large number of people in 21 out of the 48 countries.
Other popular second languages include French, Russian, and Hungarian.
A total of 15 distinct languages were identified as the second most popular, including official languages like Catalan, Belarusian and Gaeilge.
1. Albania (official language: Albanian) – English 40%
2. Andorra (official language: Catalan) – Spanish 48%
3. Armenia (official language: Armenian) – Russian 94%
4. Austria (official language: German) – English 73%
5. Azerbaijan (official language: Azerbaijani) – Russian, English
6. Belarus (official languages: Belarusian, Russian) – English
7. Bosnia and Herzegovina (official languages: Bosnian, Croatia, Serbian) – no documentation
8. Bulgaria (official language: Bulgarian) – Turkish 9%
9. Croatia (official language: Croatian) – English 49%
10. Cyprus (official languages: Greek, Turkish) – English 79%
11. Czech Republic (official language: Czech) – no documentation
12. Denmark (official language: Danish) – English 86%
13. Estonia (official language: Estonian) – Russian 56%
14. Finland (official languages: Finnish, Swedish) – English 70%
15. France (official language: French) – Arabic 49%
16. Germany (official language: German) – English 56%
17. Greece (official language: Greek) – English 51%
18. Hungary (official language: Hungarian) – English 40%
19. Iceland (official language: Icelandic) – English 98%
20. Ireland (official languages: Irish (Gaeilge), English) – French 20%
21. Italy (official language: Italian) – English 35%
22. Kazakhstan (official languages: Kazakh, Russian) – no documentation
23. Latvia (official language: Latvian) – no documentation
24. Liechtenstein (official language: German) – Italian 2%
25. Lithuania (official language: Lithuanian) – Russian 44%
26. Luxembourg (official language: Luxembourgish) – French 86%
27. Malta (official language: Maltese) – English 88%
28. Moldova (official language: Moldovan) – Romanian 75.8%
29. Monaco (official language: French) – Ligurian 17%
30. Montenegro (official language: Serbian) – Montenegrin 77%
31. Netherlands (official language: Dutch) – English 93%
32. North Macedonia (official language: Macedonian) – Albanian 24%
33. Norway (official languages: Norwegian, Sami) – English 88%
34. Poland (official language: Polish) – English 32%
35. Portugal (official language: Portuguese) – English 27%
36. Romania (official language: Romanian) – Hungarian 6%
37. Russia (official language: Russian) – English 80%
38. San Marino (official language: Italian) – Sammarinese 83%
39. Serbia (official language: Serbian) – Hungarian 4%
40. Slovakia (official language: Slovak) – Hungarian 9.4%
41. Slovenia (official language: Slovenian) – Croatian 37%
42. Spain (official language: Spanish) – Catalan 22%
43. Sweden (official language: Swedish) – English 89%
44. Switzerland (official language: German) – French 23%
45. Turkey (official language: Turkish) – English 17%
46. United Kingdom (official language: English) – French 23%
47. Ukraine (official language: Ukrainian) – Russian 34%
48. Vatican City (official language: Italian) – no documentation
Information from national censuses and surveys.
