Random Mode Keyboard shortcut: Command/Ctrl + Shift + R
thumbnail

Top 10 Languages Spoken in Europe

Which languages have the most native speakers in Europe?
According to Wikipedia
Quiz by relessness
Rate:
Last updated: March 11, 2020
You have not attempted this quiz yet.
First submittedJanuary 7, 2017
Times taken157,724
Average score80.0%
Rating4.95
2:00
Enter language here
0
 / 10 guessed
The quiz is paused. You have remaining.
Scoring
You scored / = %
This beats or equals % of test takers also scored 100%
The average score is
Your high score is
Your fastest time is
Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
Native Speakers
Language
106 mil
Russian
97 mil
German
81 mil
French
65 mil
Italian
63 mil
English
Native Speakers
Language
47 mil
Spanish
39 mil
Polish
33 mil
Ukrainian
24 mil
Romanian
22 mil
Dutch
+8
Level 65
Jan 7, 2017
Very cool :) and great that there's a source! now I can finally make the five by continent! :)
+5
Level 65
Jan 7, 2017
Spoke too soon, dang it! The pages only show official languages. Some things aren't meant to be...
+3
Level 47
Jan 7, 2017
I'm trying to make a quiz for each continent. But I'm having working out the data myself. When I'm finished feel free to make it!
+1
Level 65
Jan 7, 2017
That's amazing! So far I calculated the English population in Asia as around 444.5 million
+4
Level 47
Jan 7, 2017
I was doing just native speakers. Got this for Asia: http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/6121/top-10-spoken-languages-in-asia
+3
Level 65
Jan 7, 2017
Native speakers only? That isn't what your source is working with.
+2
Level 65
Jan 7, 2017
By the way, we now finished the 5-by-continent version. Does it look right? I know we must've made many mistakes. Using all speakers.

and a native speaker-only quiz sounds nice. I'll take a shortcut for that one and wait for you to make the rest :D

+2
Level 47
Jan 7, 2017
Yeah I'm not sure about the source for this one tbh. It claims first and second speakers, but the numbers seem way too low. I find t hard to believe that only 58 million people can speak English as a first or second language.
+2
Level 47
Jan 7, 2017
Sorry 59 million. Anyway. The Russian data on mine is wrong as discussed below, but there than that looks good!
+2
Level 65
Jan 7, 2017
That is true, about English speakers. and looks good? Great, but I know someone will correct my numbers or languages. I love feedback especially if its helpful, but I'd rather have it before I actually submit the quiz so I know it's right. Anyone else, feel free to critique.. :)
+1
Level 65
Jan 7, 2017
Very odd fact: we just added the numbers up on "Countries by English speaking population" and got... 260 million!! Check yourself if you want to. These definitely look like native speakers, so I'll need to fix all of my Europe
+2
Level 66
Jan 14, 2019
I think being able to speak a language, and it being "your language" are different things. Many people are probably able to speak english, but do not consider it their second language. Most people have grown up with only one language, in a country(region) with one (dominant) language.

besides the uk and ireland which european country has english as an official language?

looked it up, only malta as far as I can see, and that wont add much to the totals. (half a million max)

+1
Level 59
Jun 19, 2020
Although English is an official language of Malta, it's usually not their first language, which is Maltese.
+1
Level 24
Jul 14, 2020
If you add up first and second language speakers then it should come up to just under the 66 million mark. But if you only use first language then people who's language of choice is something like Polish, Welsh, Gaelic, Scots, Ulster Scots etc takes a couple million off.
+2
Level 75
Dec 13, 2018
Add Hiri Motu, Tok Pisin, and Hindi for South America
+3
Level 76
Jan 7, 2017
The correct number for Russian according to the source is 95 million, 82 million is for Russia only.
+3
Level 65
Jan 7, 2017
+1 95 million includes Russophones in Belarus and Ukraine, etc.
+3
Level 47
Jan 7, 2017
Yeah I've changed it, just waiting for the quizmaster to approve it.
+4
Level 48
Dec 25, 2021
Speaking of Ukraine, I got a 9/10 because I spelled Ukrainian wrong. Bummer
+2
Level 79
Jan 7, 2017
Excellent quiz, quite challenging but I got the last with 4 s cones to spare.
+10
Level 66
Apr 5, 2020
You had scones to spare? Can I try one I never had one
+3
Level 78
Aug 27, 2020
Lovely with jam and cream. Or is it cream then jam?
+2
Level 65
Dec 21, 2021
No, they had s cones to spare, which is short for Sorbet Cones.
+12
Level 58
Feb 24, 2017
Misspelled Ukrainian Ukranian. Only one I missed.
+2
Level 48
Apr 20, 2017
Same!
+1
Level 61
May 22, 2018
same :(
+5
Level 79
Jul 11, 2020
It's like some people misspelling Australia as 'Austrailia' 😄
+1
Level 60
Aug 23, 2023
Except that one is accepted.
+1
Level 66
Jul 11, 2020
Same... only one I missed this time
+1
Level 65
Mar 17, 2021
Same
+1
Level 60
Aug 23, 2023
I finally learned how to spell it on my third try.
+10
Level 60
Apr 20, 2017
Forgot all about the bloody Dutch
+23
Level 54
Apr 20, 2017
This quiz unfairly advantages people who aren't ignorant.
+2
Level 64
Apr 20, 2017
lol
+15
Level 67
Apr 20, 2017
Surprised Serbo-Croatian didn't make it.
+2
Level 77
Apr 20, 2017
So close.
+3
Level 59
Apr 20, 2017
I somehow managed to forget English. *facepalm*
+4
Level 68
Apr 20, 2017
Que?
+1
Level 47
Jun 30, 2018
same :8
+1
Level 66
Jul 11, 2020
Better than forget to manage "english" (or maybe not..) 95% of the time, especially when I type very fast, it comes out as englsih.. I have to correct it nearly every damn time! I guess my finger that is going to type the s, just beats the one that has to type the i to it every time..
+2
Level 76
Apr 20, 2017
Should turkish make the list?
+4
Level 47
Apr 21, 2017
The source says there's about 19 million native Turkish speakers in Europe.
+3
Level 23
Apr 26, 2017
There are more French speakers that What you said... France alone is 67millions. The you have to add The French speakers of Belgium,Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra and Switzerland
+6
Level 47
Apr 26, 2017
Don't forget this is native speakers only. Not everyone in France is a native speaker. And the populations of the rest of those countries is quite small. Also only 65 million live in Metropolitan France.
+1
Level 37
Nov 18, 2017
You have the number of people speaking Dutch at 21,900 million. As you say that the quiz only accounts for native speakers of a language and the population of the Netherlands is 17 million, almost half of Belgium must then be native Dutch speakers? (Pop. of Belgium is 11 million). Are you considering Flemish as Dutch?
+16
Level 58
Jan 13, 2018
Flemish is the same as Dutch, just with a different accent and a few different words for some things. It's like the difference between UK English and US English.
+7
Level 67
Dec 26, 2017
Yes, Dutch is an official language of Belgium (often referred to as Flemish) and is native for 60% of the population.
+1
Level 70
Feb 28, 2018
Surprised at the low number for English. The population of the UK is over 65 million, the vast majority of whom will be English speakers. Add in some 4.7 million Irish - the vast majority of whom will also be English speakers, and you aren't far short of 70 million.
+3
Level 70
Jun 30, 2018
The vast majority will be English speakers but a significant minority will not be native speakers.
+1
Level 63
Feb 25, 2019
Got them all with 1:15 remaining at 5:46:16 PM on February 25, 2019. I was surprised that Dutch made the list.
+1
Level 66
Jul 11, 2020
It is quite densely populated, plus you get the majority of Belgium aswell (which is also relatively densely populated). But even without Belgium, the country next inline would be with a population of around 10 mil a tie between Czechia, Greece, Sweden and Portugal. Ofcourse people speak portuguese in Brazil, but well that's not in Europe.

So the next on the list would be about half the number of dutch speakers (in Europe, though the numbers from the americas would not add a very significant amount, maybe 1 mill)

+1
Level 64
Dec 31, 2022
I'm pretty sure the next language would be Serbo-Croatian, and would beat Dutch if Flemish speakers somehow didn't count.
+2
Level 82
Feb 26, 2019
In my travels around Europe I've many times thought that it would be very handy to speak Russian. Not only is it tied to be the most widely spoken language, apparently, but also those Europeans who speak Russian are much less likely than the German-speakers to have even a passable level of English.
+1
Level 34
Dec 27, 2023
It's still the language of communication in Eastern Europe today, most people speak Russian in Russia but also Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, that's quite a lot of places already
+1
Level 64
Jul 8, 2019
First try, 50 seconds left! Fantastic quiz!
+1
Level 51
Jan 1, 2020
ONE SECOND LEFT! LOL!
+4
Level 32
Mar 19, 2020
Spanish 38 mil.

Spain population 46 mil.

Well, there's 8 mil. mute spaniards I guess x)

+2
Level 61
Jul 7, 2020
I agree, that number is misleading.
+9
Level 56
Jul 11, 2020
Catalan, Galician, Basque etc. speakers would disagree. Mute signers would also disagree.
+10
Level 95
Jul 11, 2020
I am not mute. I am catalan.
+2
Level 43
Jul 12, 2020
You guys are native Spanish speakers too, like it or not.
+8
Level 43
Feb 8, 2021
People who speak Catalan as their first languages are not native speakers of Spanish.
+2
Level 57
Jun 25, 2022
Of course they are, their parents speak to them in spanish and they learn it as school
+1
Level 60
Aug 23, 2023
Uh... no? If their first language is Catalan, then it's likely that their parents speak Catalan and they learn Spanish as a second language.
+1
Level 22
Jun 13, 2020
I got it all right except German... I FORGOT GERMAN
+1
Level 51
Jul 11, 2020
Tried Hungarian, Estonian, and even Belarusian. But forgot ROMANIAN!
+1
Level 34
Dec 27, 2023
Even Belarussians don't speak Belarussian anymore :/
+2
Level 75
Jul 11, 2020
Paused a bit, then Romanian ftw
+1
Level 33
Jul 11, 2020
I had just started typing in Ukranian which popped into my head at the last moment and then the time ran out.
+1
Level 58
Jul 11, 2020
Accept the misspelling "Ukranian"? I got 9/10 because of this :(
+1
Level 60
Nov 25, 2022
same
+1
Level 78
Jul 13, 2020
Are there native British who do not speak English as a first language? Population is 66.6M in 2019.
+4
Level 80
Sep 23, 2020
Some whose first language is Welsh, yes. But also that population total does include first-generation immigrants, who will have a mix of other first languages - Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian, Bengali, Cantonese, Gujarati, French, German, etc...
+1
Level 78
Jun 22, 2021
OK, fair point.
+1
Level 69
Sep 23, 2020
9/10, forgot Polish
+1
Level 24
Dec 16, 2020
I thought I spelt Ukriane's language correctly but i guess not
+1
Level 33
Jan 14, 2021
italian -_-
+1
Level 26
Mar 24, 2021
I MISSED FRENCH

sad i know

+1
Level 67
Nov 12, 2021
48 seconds
+1
Level 64
Dec 3, 2021
There must be more Arabic native speakers in Europe than there are Dutch, whatever Wikipedia says. Wiki is a useful tool; it's not the fount of all knowledge
+1
Level 23
Sep 6, 2023
Completely delusional if you think there are more than 22 million L1 Arabic speakers in Europe.
+1
Level 34
Jun 14, 2022
surprised greek wasn't on this
+1
Level 66
Jul 19, 2022
Greece and Cyprus have a small population.
+2
Level 60
Dec 29, 2022
Great, I just spelled "Ukrainian" incorrectly and lost the 5. Good flexibility there.
+1
Level 57
Dec 29, 2022
There have to be more than 20 million speakers of Serbo-Croatian. There's around that number in Yugoslavia alone, and millions live abroad
+1
Level 20
Dec 29, 2022
mfs who aren't Romanian and got Romania and Ukraine wrong

😔😔😔😔

+3
Level 63
Dec 29, 2022
Something tells me the % who remembered Ukrainian is higher after Feb 2022 than before.
+1
Level 28
Feb 24, 2023
exactly!
+1
Level 60
Aug 23, 2023
I think most people remembered it but misspelled it. That happened to me twice.
+1
Level 39
Jan 2, 2023
got all of them except romanian:(
+1
Level 56
Jan 5, 2023
Wikipedia isn't a reliable source, i checked 2 articles on its site and it gives totally different numbers for native speakers. Sometimes it gives me german is spoken by 97 mil and dutch by 18 mil, while sometimes russian is the most spoken. I think you should revise your source.
+4
Level ∞
Jan 5, 2023
Wish I could, but I don't think there is a better source available. If you find one, let me know!
+2
Level 28
Feb 24, 2023
the only thing i missed is english. i still can't believe it
+2
Level 16
Jul 13, 2023
Forgot Ukraine, oh boy
+1
Level 67
Aug 23, 2023
31 seconds
+1
Level 45
Nov 3, 2023
I missed spanish. Spanish.