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Official Languages of the World

Can you name the national languages of every country in the world?
Source: Wikipedia
National languages only - not regional languages. Some countries also acknowledge sign language varieties which are not shown,
Countries without a dejure official language, only a defacto one, are marked in blue>
Bolivia has 37 official languages, Zimbabwe 16, and Mali 13. This quiz includes the most prominent.
Quiz by Zefyrinus
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Last updated: October 20, 2023
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First submittedJanuary 7, 2013
Times taken285,099
Average score56.7%
Rating4.99
10:00
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Country
Language
Afghanistan
Pashto
Persian (Darī)
Albania
Albanian
Algeria
Arabic
Berber
Andorra
Catalan
Angola
Portuguese
Antigua and
Barbuda
English
Argentina
Spanish
Armenia
Armenian
Australia
English
Austria
German
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani
Bahamas
English
Bahrain
Arabic
Bangladesh
Bengali
Barbados
English
Belarus
Belarusian
Russian
Belgium
Dutch
French
German
Belize
English
Benin
French
Bhutan
Dzongkha
Bolivia
Aymara
Quechua
Spanish
Bosnia and
Herzegovina
Serbo-Croatian
(Bosnian)
Serbo-Croatian
(Croatian)
Serbo-Croatian
(Serbian)
Botswana
English
Tswana
Brazil
Portuguese
Brunei
Malay
Bulgaria
Bulgarian
Burkina Faso
French
Burundi
English
French
Kirundi
Cambodia
Khmer
Cameroon
English
French
Canada
English
French
Cape Verde
Portuguese
Central African
Republic
French
Sango
Chad
Arabic
French
Chile
Spanish
China
Chinese
(Mandarin)
Colombia
Spanish
Comoros
Arabic
Comorian
French
Costa Rica
Spanish
Croatia
Serbo-Croatian
(Croatian)
Cuba
Spanish
Cyprus
Greek
Turkish
Czech Republic
Czech
D.R. Congo
French
Denmark
Danish
Djibouti
Arabic
French
Dominica
English
Dominican Republic
Spanish
East Timor
Portuguese
Tetum
Ecuador
Spanish
Egypt
Arabic
El Salvador
Spanish
Equatorial Guinea
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Eritrea
Tigrinya
Estonia
Estonian
Eswatini
English
Swazi
Ethiopia
Afar
Amharic
Oromo
Somali
Tigrinya
Fed. States of
Micronesia
English
Fiji
English
Fijian
Hindustani
(Fiji Hindi)
Finland
Finnish
Swedish
France
French
Gabon
French
Gambia
English
Georgia
Georgian
Germany
German
Ghana
English
Country
Language
Greece
Greek
Grenada
English
Guatemala
Spanish
Guinea
French
Guinea-Bissau
Portuguese
Guyana
English
Haiti
French
Haitian Creole
Honduras
Spanish
Hungary
Hungarian
Iceland
Icelandic
India
English
Hindustani
(Hindi)
Indonesia
Malay
(Indonesian)
Iran
Persian
Iraq
Arabic
Kurdish
Ireland
English
Irish
Israel
Hebrew
Italy
Italian
Ivory Coast
French
Jamaica
English
Japan
Japanese
Jordan
Arabic
Kazakhstan
Kazakh
Russian
Kenya
English
Swahili
Kiribati
English
Gilbertese
Kosovo
Albanian
Serbo-Croatian
(Serbian)
Kuwait
Arabic
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyz
Russian
Laos
Lao
Latvia
Latvian
Lebanon
Arabic
Lesotho
English
Sotho
Liberia
English
Libya
Arabic
Liechtenstein
German
Lithuania
Lithuanian
Luxembourg
French
German
Luxembourgish
Madagascar
French
Malagasy
Malawi
Chewa
English
Malaysia
Malay
Maldives
Maldivian
Mali
Bambara
Malta
English
Maltese
Marshall Islands
English
Marshallese
Mauritania
Arabic
Mauritius
Mauritian Creole
Mexico
Spanish
Moldova
Romanian
(Moldovan)
Monaco
French
Mongolia
Mongolian
Montenegro
Serbo-Croatian
(Montenegrin)
Morocco
Arabic
Berber
Mozambique
Portuguese
Myanmar
Burmese
Namibia
English
Nauru
English
Nauruan
Nepal
Nepali
Netherlands
Dutch
New Zealand
English
Māori
Nicaragua
Spanish
Niger
French
Nigeria
English
North Korea
Korean
North Macedonia
Albanian
Macedonian
Norway
Norwegian
Sámi
Oman
Arabic
Pakistan
English
Hindustani
(Urdu)
Palau
English
Palauan
Panama
Spanish
Papua New
Guinea
English
Hiri Motu
Tok Pisin
Paraguay
Guaraní
Spanish
Country
Language
Peru
Aymara
Quechua
Spanish
Philippines
English
Filipino
Poland
Polish
Portugal
Portuguese
Qatar
Arabic
Rep. of Congo
French
Romania
Romanian
Russia
Russian
Rwanda
English
French
Kinyarwanda
Swahili
St. Kitts and
Nevis
English
St. Lucia
English
St. Vincent and the
Grenadines
English
Samoa
English
Samoan
San Marino
Italian
São Tomé and
Príncipe
Portuguese
Saudi Arabia
Arabic
Senegal
French
Serbia
Serbo-Croatian
(Serbian)
Seychelles
English
French
Seychellois Creole
Sierra Leone
English
Singapore
Chinese
(Mandarin)
English
Malay
Tamil
Slovakia
Slovak
Slovenia
Slovene
Solomon Islands
English
Somalia
Arabic
Somali
South Africa
Afrikaans
English
Northern Sotho
Sotho
Southern Ndebele
Swazi
Tsonga
Tswana
Venda
Xhosa
Zulu
South Korea
Korean
South Sudan
English
Spain
Spanish
Sri Lanka
Sinhala
Tamil
Sudan
Arabic
English
Suriname
Dutch
Sweden
Swedish
Switzerland
French
German
Italian
Romansh
Syria
Arabic
Taiwan
Chinese
(Mandarin)
Tajikistan
Persian (Tajik)
Tanzania
English
Swahili
Thailand
Thai
Togo
French
Tonga
English
Tongan
Trinidad and
Tobago
English
Tunisia
Arabic
Turkey
Turkish
Turkmenistan
Turkmen
Tuvalu
English
Tuvaluan
Uganda
English
Swahili
Ukraine
Ukrainian
United Arab
Emirates
Arabic
United Kingdom
English
United States
English
Uruguay
Spanish
Uzbekistan
Uzbek
Vanuatu
Bislama
English
French
Vatican City
Italian
Venezuela
Spanish
Vietnam
Vietnamese
Yemen
Arabic
Zambia
English
Zimbabwe
English
Northern Ndebele
Shona
+1
Level 66
Mar 20, 2020
Why is the Netherlands in red?
+2
Level 71
Aug 1, 2020
I don't know why the Quizmaster did this. :S The Wikipedia article says that Dutch is the official language.
+1
Level 57
Mar 20, 2020
You should accept Amhara for Amharic
+1
Level 71
Aug 1, 2020
Hmm, I'm not sure. Amhara is the name of the ethnic group who speak Amharic. I only checked the Wikipedia article, but that one doesn't list Amhara as an alternative name for the language.
+3
Level 70
May 15, 2020
'Creole' should fit for Haiti, Mauritius, etc... e.g. without 'haitian"
+11
Level 71
Aug 1, 2020
They are all different creole languages, so you need to specify which exact creoles they speak.
+1
Level 79
Jul 3, 2020
Feeling a bit dumb as I forgot Afrikaans...
+3
Level 77
Jul 17, 2020
Is there a reason that the sign languages are all filled in? It seems odd that they are treated differently than the other languages.
+5
Level 71
Aug 1, 2020
Huh, the Quizmaster has changed this. I don't know what the reasoning is. :/
+1
Level 35
Jul 20, 2020
After 20+ attempts I was finally able to remember all of them and passed the quiz with exactly 3:00 left!
+2
Level 60
Aug 20, 2020
When you get Kinyarwanda, but not Bulgarian...at least I had 77.
+1
Level 47
Sep 2, 2020
Sweden does not have an official language. It is de facto the majority language and it's official when Sweden represents outwards. There are five official minority languages though (finnish, yiddish, meänkieli, romani and sami).
+2
Level 71
Sep 3, 2020
Swedish was officially made the "main language" in 2009. ( https://web.archive.org/web/20141110205547/http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/Dokument-Lagar/Lagar/Svenskforfattningssamling/Spraklag-2009600_sfs-2009-600/ ) It's unclear if this should be interpreted to mean the same thing as a national or official language.
+2
Level 67
Sep 20, 2020
Truly puzzled that The Netherlands is now depicted as a de facto language rather than a de jure language, and wondering where the decision to note it as a de facto language came from.

I looked at the Dutch government's own website where it implicitly states that Dutch is indeed the official language, and that Fries (Frisian) is the second official language in that particular province. Papiamento and English are also considered as official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands.

+1
Level 24
Nov 1, 2020
So you have two languages for India and half a dozen or more for South Africa. Really? Do you have any idea how many languages are spoken in India’s relatively small neighbour Pakistan let alone India? Here allow me to list them all(for Pakistan):

English, Urdu, pashto, Punjabi,Sindhi, saraiki, Baltit, Farsi, Hindko, Baluchi, Brahui etc. That’s not even exhaustive.

Now divide the land area of India by Pakistan, and multiply the languages above, and that’s APPROXIMATELY how many MAIN languages are spoken in India.

I don’t know that much about China, but seeing as how you missed Cantonese I’m guessing you made similar omission there as well. Please correct.

+9
Level 71
Nov 4, 2020
Calm down. This quiz is about the official languages of countries, not languages with only regional status or no official status at all.
+2
Level 34
Nov 27, 2020
In Vatican City write in latin.
+1
Level 21
Dec 26, 2020
i forgot all the languages below tonga, tok pisin and northern sotho but then left out norwegian and urdu ahahahhaha
+1
Level 52
Jan 7, 2021
Actually Vatican city has 4 official languages : italian, french, german and last but not least latin (so you should add an anwser)
+4
Level 71
Jan 8, 2021
Some of those are working languages in various institutions, but they're not official languages of the Vatican City. Italian is the official language of the Vatican City, and Latin is the official language of the Holy See. What the difference between the Vatican City and the Holy See is, is a difficult question...
+2
Level 22
Feb 9, 2021
Non British/Irish Europeans, how would you describe your proficiency in English? How much it is stressed to know it in your country and why? I've heard that most Europeans know English as a second language.

(From America so ignorant to this stuff)

+3
Level 71
Jul 5, 2021
In Sweden it's taught from 4th grade normally. There are some who start even earlier. Finland has a similar situation, though I don't know the details. There's more American than Swedish shows on TV.
+1
Level 49
Dec 19, 2023
In Finland I started learning English on 3th grade and Swedish on 7th grade. I use English every day and my reading and listening comprehension are very good, writing is weaker and speaking is much weaker. The most difficult things in writing are articles and prepositions, because Finnish doesn't have articles and has 15 cases.

When I was writing this answer, I first wrote "at 3th grade", but then I changed it "on 3th grade", and I am not sure, whether either of them is correct. So, often choosing the correct preposition is still a guessing game for me.

+1
Level 72
Feb 9, 2024
The correct preposition would be "in".
+1
Level 61
Mar 3, 2021
88! I think that is pretty good!
+1
Level 39
Apr 3, 2021
97/117
+1
Level 65
Apr 29, 2021
Can you accept 'French Creole'?
+1
Level 72
Feb 9, 2024
There are many different types of French creoles, often not mutually intelligible.
+1
Level 15
Jun 30, 2021
for Lebanon it isn't only Arabic, it's also French and English.
+1
Level 71
Jul 5, 2021
What's your source for that? I can only see that French is a "recognized second language", so not an official or national language. I don't see any mention of English having an official status.
+2
Level 82
Oct 7, 2021
115/119

South Africa and Ethiopia are killers

+2
Level 88
Oct 8, 2021
Bunch of crap that Hindi doesn't work for Fiji
+2
Level 71
Oct 11, 2021
Because some consider it a separate language. Hindustani however is accepted.
+1
Level 67
Oct 8, 2021
Sami, that is not a single language, is not a national language in Norway. 3 different sami languages are official in some municipalities: Northern Sami in 8, Lule Sami in 1, and Southern Sami in 4.
+1
Level 71
Oct 11, 2021
Thanks for the comment. Wikipedia was quite ambiguous whether it/they were official on the national level. But then I checked the source given, and it says that Sami is official only in the their areas administration. So not the whole country. I decided to remove Sami, but it will take a while before this change takes effect.
+1
Level 82
Nov 8, 2021
Northern Sami is on the cover of passports though.
+3
Level 82
Oct 12, 2021
It seems to me that 90% of the time, when a country only has one official language (and it's not a colonized language like English/Spanish/etc.) then it's just some form of the country name. Polish. Nepali. Albanian. Japanese. Lao. Malay. I can't even tell you how many I got just because I typed in the country name +ese/i/ian
+1
Level 67
Oct 12, 2021
Got Hiri Motu, missed Afrikaans.
+1
Level 50
Oct 24, 2021
India actually has 22+1(English) official languages namely, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Meitei, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
+5
Level 75
Oct 25, 2021
Mauritius has no official language as per our constitution. Mauritian Creole is the mother tongue of around 95% of the population and our most common day to day language. English is the most common working language with French as the second most common working language and it is also the second most popular language for conversations. French is the main language of our media. English and French are also very commonly used in conversations, specially among the younger generations. We are proudly trilingual (at least) and it is very common to hear many people using Mauritian Creole, French and English during a conversation. Bhojpuri is the mother tongue of around 5% of the population and is quite popular as the first or second language of the older generation of people of Indian origin (around two third of the population is of Indian origin, mainly the Hindu and the Muslim population).
+3
Level 90
Oct 26, 2021
Interesting and educational.
+1
Level 82
Nov 8, 2021
What language is used to publish laws, in parliament, courts etc? That's what makes it a de facto official language.
+1
Level 75
Oct 24, 2023
English is the legal and legislative language, but French is widely accepted as well.
+1
Level 15
Oct 28, 2021
great quiz. minor one, but Welsh (Cymraeg) is an official language of the UK
+1
Level 53
Dec 14, 2021
This quiz does not count regional language, and Welsh is only official in Wales.
+1
Level 24
Nov 4, 2021
very nice quiz
+1
Level 15
Nov 9, 2021
This one was very hard nice quiz tho i really like it
+2
Level 58
Nov 11, 2021
Taiwan (Republic of China) has passed the National Languages Development Law, now we Taiwanese have multiple national languages, including Mandarin, Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, Matsu, and Formosan languages. Also, Taiwan does not have an official language so national language is all we have.

By the way, Chinese is not a language but more like a language family since for example, Mandarin and Cantonese are definitely mutual unintelligible, so please do not include Chinese as a correct type in.

+1
Level 58
Jan 31, 2022
Noice👌
+6
Level 60
Feb 13, 2022
I almost feel bad for people who make these quizzes, so many arguments in chat…

Nice quiz though

+2
Level 72
Mar 1, 2022
FYI Mali changed their official language to Bambara in January.
+1
Level 82
Mar 8, 2022
I forgot English--the only language I know. LOL
+1
Level 53
Mar 18, 2022
Czechia has both Czech and Slovak as official languages, according to Wikipedia.
+2
Level 15
Mar 23, 2022
God help you if Papua New Guinea ever becomes fully plurinational and all 580+ languages become official
+1
Level 54
May 3, 2022
Could Berbar be accepted for Berber
+1
Level 25
May 27, 2022
62/119
+1
Level 44
Aug 7, 2022
Could you accept Mauritius Creole for Mauritian Creole?
+1
Level 24
Aug 13, 2022
I feel having only 3 for bolivia and zimbabwe is not fair as S. africa has 12, and all are included, i'd say narrow all above five down to the five most prominant
+1
Level 26
Aug 22, 2022
Can you accept Sotho for Northern Sotho and Mauritian for Mauritian Creole?
+1
Level 36
Jan 8, 2024
It seems that there is some confusion regarding the distinction between Sotho and Northern Sotho. Could you please clarify the difference between the two? I think that Sotho should be considered as both Northern and Southern Sotho. Other than that, I enjoyed the game.
+1
Level 26
Aug 22, 2022
Languages I forgot: Sango, Afar, Amharic, Chewa, Mauritian Creole, Northern Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Sinhala, Shona, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, Guarani…
+2
Level 49
Sep 1, 2022
This def needs more time
+1
Level 77
Oct 20, 2023
I agree - I didn't get to the end. At least two more minutes, IMO.
+1
Level 68
Feb 10, 2023
Please accept Chechua for Quechua
+1
Level 74
Nov 13, 2023
It's not pronounced anything like that. Are you thinking of Chichewa, which is the long-form name of the indigenous official language of Malawi?
+1
Level 68
Dec 18, 2023
No, but I read this type of spelling somewhere and that's how I remembered it, unfortunately.

Got better by now.

Thanks, anyway

+1
Level 67
Feb 14, 2023
I tried Creole but I guess it doesn't count because there's multiple variations of it for different countries like Haitian, Mauritian and Seychellois. Got 85
+1
Level 47
Apr 26, 2023
Latin is the only official language of the Vatican, according to Wikipedia, whereas Italian is regarded as the national language. Could you fix it?
+1
Level 91
Oct 20, 2023
The same question here!
+1
Level 81
Dec 18, 2023
Yes and no.

The Wikipedia Page for the Vatican City does mention Latin in the sidebar, yes. However if you follow the source it cites, you'll notice that source actually doesn't say that - in fact it says quite the opposite: that Latin is not an official language of the Vatican.

Also on that same Wikipedia page, if you scroll down to the section on Languages it expands on that and correctly explains that while Latin is used on official documents for the Holy See, it is not an official language of the Vatican.

TL;DR - the sidebar on the Wikipedia page is wrong.

+1
Level 67
May 16, 2023
91
+2
Level 52
Jun 4, 2023
India DOES NOT have a national language. English and Hindi are correctly shown as official languages here. But 22 other languages are recognised.

Hence, the terms official and national shouldn't be used interchageably.

+1
Level 36
Jun 22, 2023
Can you please accept "Finish" for "Finnish"
+1
Level 48
Dec 18, 2023
Why?
+3
Level 71
Jul 26, 2023
Mali has now local languages as official.
+1
Level 58
Aug 15, 2023
I wrote "creolic" instead "creole" a few times, I think it should work
+2
Level 57
Oct 20, 2023
no
+3
Level 64
Sep 2, 2023
Mali now has 13 different languages as official (French is now a working language and isn't official)
+1
Level 43
Sep 2, 2023
Can you please accept "Seychellois for "Seychellois Creole"?
+1
Level 60
Sep 26, 2023
South Africa Sign Language is now an official language of South Africa. Also would be nice if the quiztaker had to guess "sign language".
+1
Level 50
Oct 20, 2023
117 but still only 4 points. Feels bad man.
+1
Level 71
Oct 20, 2023
What do you mean Mali's language is called "they wear it"? Despite how they felt towards the French, according to Google their national language is still French.
+2
Level ∞
Oct 22, 2023
Google is not a source. According to the government of Mali, there are 13 official languages, French not among them.
+1
Level 73
Oct 22, 2023
The quiz info says Bolivia, Zimbabwe, and Mali all have the most prominent languages shown because they have so many (which is fair). Bolivia and Zimbabwe each have three languages in the quiz, whereas Mali only has one. Should Mali have three too?
+2
Level ∞
Oct 22, 2023
No. There's a clear cutoff between #1 and #2.
+2
Level 72
Oct 23, 2023
Bambara is spoken by 46.3% of the population, then it drops down to Fula at 9.4%.

As for Bolivia, 75% speaks Spanish, 25% speaks Quechua, and 16.77% speak Aymara before it drops to Guarani with 0.69%. A cutoff of 3 seems logical.

And finally Zimbabwe, 40% speaks Shona, 35% speaks northern Ndebele, and finally English with 85% of the population speaking it as a second language.

+2
Level 73
Jan 27, 2024
Makes sense. Thanks!
+1
Level 68
Oct 22, 2023
I like how Pakistan speaks Hindustani
+1
Level 39
Oct 23, 2023
You should accept Welsh for the UK, as it is an official language with equal status to English
+1
Level ∞
Oct 23, 2023
The United Kingdom doesn't have an official language. The overwhelming majority of people speak English. That's why English is the de-facto national language.

Welsh is spoken by a tiny minority. Even in Wales, few speak it as their first language.

Why not add Polish or Punjabi? Those languages have more speakers in the UK than Welsh does.

+3
Level 76
Oct 29, 2023
Because Welsh is an indigenous language, whereas Polish and Punjabi are not. Welsh is a de jure official language of Wales, but I guess it is omitted because this quiz treats Wales as a "region", and not a country, in the United Kingdom.
+2
Level 76
Oct 25, 2023
English is (surprisingly) not an official language of New Zealand. Only Maori and NZ Sign Language are. Recent attempts to enshrine English legally as an official language have gone nowhere. At the recent 2023 general election one party leader (whose party, NZ First, gained 6% of the vote) campaigned on making English official.
+1
Level 76
Dec 10, 2023
Still not yet corrected!
+1
Level 76
Dec 12, 2023
I'll encourage you to sign this petition if you want English to be an official language of New Zealand (and make the quiz answer correct in the process).
+1
Level 76
Dec 14, 2023
This article will also enlighten you :)
+1
Level ∞
Dec 14, 2023
Okay, I accept it. The problem is that English is of course the de-facto national language of New Zealand. And we have the bizarre situation where Maori is official and English is not.

So it defeats my color scheme system. Maybe I'll do something about it at some point.

+3
Level 67
Oct 31, 2023
It’s not defacto, it’s de facto. It’s not dejure, it’s de jure. Please use an en or em dash instead of a hyphen in the second caveat. The Bahamas, not Bahamas. The Gambia, not Gambia. Not enough time. Rated 1 star
+5
Level ∞
Dec 10, 2023
Tough crowd!
+1
Level 48
Dec 18, 2023
It's not delivery, it's Digiorno.
+1
Level 37
Mar 8, 2024
83/120 pretty good for a 12 year old!