Multiligualism in Europe statistics

There are currently 24 official EU languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish

The EU is home to over 60 indigenous regional or minority languages, spoken by some 40 million people. They include Basque, Catalan, Frisian, Saami, Welsh and Yiddish.

The 2012 Eurobarometer survey on Europeans and their languages revealed very positive attitudes to multilingualism:

98% say mastering foreign languages will benefit their children.
88% think that knowing languages other than their mother tongue is very useful.
72% agree with the EU goal of at least 2 foreign languages for everyone.
77% say improving language skills should be a policy priority.

Data: http://europa.eu/pol/mult/index_en.htm
Image: http://www.debatingeurope.eu/2014/12/09/should-english-be-the-only-official-language-of-the-eu/#.VvHbYfnJyhc

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Hanna Gembus

Hanna Gembus is a professional Polish English and Polish German translator and communication specialist based in the United Kingdom providing translation, content, interpreting and market research services to small, medium-sized and large companies and organisations. She specialises in business, marketing and e-commerce, using linguistic and cultural knowledge to help both start-ups and established companies improve their presence on the market and increase sales. http://langoa.eu