Countries that are officially or unofficially multilingual
Multiple official languages
Single official language, functionally multilingual
No official language, functionally multilingual
This is an incomplete list of areas with either multilingualism at the community level or at the personal level.
There is a distinction between social and personal bilingualism. Many countries, such as Belgium, which are officially multilingual, may have many monolinguals in their population. Officially monolingual countries, on the other hand, such as France, can have sizable multilingual populations.
Namibia : English (official) + Ovambo (half of the population), Afrikaans & German (former official languages), Portuguese (Angolan immigrants, both of African & European-descent)
Bolivia is officially multilingual, supporting Spanish and 36 native languages[1].
Canada is officially bilingual under the Official Languages Act and the Constitution of Canada that require the federal government to deliver services in both official languages. As well, minority language rights are guaranteed where numbers warrant. 59.3% of the population speak English as their first language while 22.9% are native speakers of French. The remaining population belong to some of Canada's many immigrant populations or to the indigenous population. See Bilingualism in Canada
The Canadian province of New Brunswick, with a large Acadian population (35% French-speaking), is the only province in Canada with two official languages.
The Canadian province of Quebec, (7.9% English-speaking) Note: Although there is a relatively sizable English-speaking population in Quebec, French is the only official language. At the same time, most government services are available in English and French.
There are also significant French language minorities in the provinces of Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Prince Edward Island. Though these provinces are not officially bilingual they do provide a number of services in French.
In many of Canada's First Nations' communities in the more isolated regions, aboriginal languages are retained. English and French are accepted in the community at the community elders' discretion.
In the 2006 Canadian census, information and questions are available in sixty-two languages, including eighteen First Nation languages.
Ecuador defines Spanish as its official language, but Spanish, Quechua and Shuar - as official languages of intercultural relations in the Article 2 of the 2008 Constitution[2].
In Guatemala, the official language is Spanish, however, there are 23 distinct Mayan languages. Not all Guatemalans speak Spanish, while some may do so only as a second or third language.
In Mexico, the government recognizes 62 indigenous languages, including Nahuatl spoken by more than 1.5 million people and Aquacatec spoken by 27 people, along with Spanish. There is no official language at the federal level, although Spanish is the de facto state language.
In the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, where Dutch is the official language, but most inhabitants of Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire are multilingual and speak Papiamento, Dutch and sometimes English and Spanish. Most inhabitants are fluent in all four.
Paraguay, 48% of its population is bilingual in Guaraní and Spanish, of whom 37% speak only Guaraní and 8% only Spanish but the latter increases with the use of Jopará.
Peru's official languages are Spanish and, in the zones where they are predominant, Quechua, Aymara, and other aboriginal languages.
In the United States, at the federal level, there is no official language, although there have been efforts to make English the official language.
The US state of Louisiana is unofficially bilingual (de facto) in English and French.
The US state of Hawaii is officially bilingual in English and Hawaiian.
In US, states with a large hispanic immigrant population such as California, Texas, and Florida will often provide government services at the municipal level in Spanish as well as English. For example in Florida, Hialeah recognizes both English and Spanish while Miami recognizes English, French Creole, and Spanish as official government languages.
Asia
Philippines: Filipino and English are official languages in the constitution. Some people in native Tagalog areas are bilingual, while in non-Tagalog speaking areas it is common to be multilingual in the native and/or regional language/s, Filipino and English or in other cases may know other languages, other than Filipino and English, because of their family's foreign roots.
In Iraq, Arabic is the official language of the state, Kurdish is the official language of the north where 4 million native speakers live. Other languages also exist among Christian communities north of and around Baghdad, such as Aramaic.
In Lebanon, Arabic is the official language, French, Armenian and English are spoken alongside Arabic. Most Lebanese are fluent in all four, and many learn additional languages as well.
In China, Putonghua is the official language and is spoken in all regions. It is used for official and formal purposes, by the media and in education as the language of instruction. However in every locality and region, local dialects of spoken variants of Chinese are spoken in daily life. These dialects range from being quite similar to Putonghua, such as Tianjin dialect, to varieties that are mutually unintelligible with Putonghua such as Shanghai dialect (Wu) or Guangzhou dialect (Cantonese). In the autonomous regions, minority languages are used (such as Tibetan in Tibet or Mongolian in Inner Mongolia).
In Hong Kong, both English and Chinese are official languages. While Cantonese is the dominant Chinese language, Putonghua is gradually having more speakers in recent years. Although these three languages are taught in schools and are mandatory subjects, most people only speak Cantonese; relatively few people are fully bilingual in Cantonese and English or Putonghua.
In Macau, both Chinese and Portuguese are official languages. While Cantonese is the dominant Chinese language, Putonghua is also spoken. Chinese is taught in all schools, while Portuguese is mainly taught in government schools. In addition, English is also taught in many schools.
India. A sign-board that indicates the direction to Sabarimala, a pilgrim station in India. The multilingual board is written in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and English (in that order, from top to bottom) There are 23 official languages in India (Including Hindi and English). The largest, Hindi, is spoken natively by 50% of the population and is largely understood by educated Indians. English is also widely used, although mainly in urban parts of the country. An Indian with a high-school education would generally be trilingual - speaking his or her own native language, in addition to Hindi and English, with varying fluency, both the languages being compulsorily (in select states) taught in most schools and colleges. French is one of the official languages in the territory of Puducherry. For more information, see Languages of India.
Pakistan. There are two official languages (English and Urdu) and many regional languages and dialects (the latter are often unintelligible from other dialects of the "same language"). As in India, most Pakistanis are trilingual, being perfectly fluent in both English and Urdu as well as their own regional language. At the same time due to a higher level of integration and interaction between the various communities than in India, many Pakistanis have at least some understanding of one or more other regional language, for example many Punjabis and Pakhtuns are able to understand each others languages due to interaction, the same is true of Balochis and Sindhis.
Many people in Indonesia are bilingual at an early age. They speak a local native language with their families whereas the official Indonesian language is used to communicate with people from other regions and is taught in schools as a compulsory subject. Indonesia has over two hundred native languages.
In Israel, Hebrew and Arabic both have official status. The Jewish population largely speaks Hebrew, though many Jewish immigrants to Israel (especially from Europe) have a different mother tongue, such as Arabic, Amharic, Yiddish, Ladino, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Ukrainian, English, or French. The Arab population of Israel speaks Arabic, which is also the language of instruction in Arab Israeli schools. Functionally, almost all Arabs in Israel also speak Hebrew. English is widely spoken and understood as a second language by both Jews and Arabs. Officially, road signs must be in Hebrew, Arabic, and a romanized Hebrew transliteration.
Everyone in Malaysia is at least bilingual while Malaysians of Chinese and Indian descent mostly trilingual or even multilingual. Malay, the official language of the country, is a compulsory subject learnt in all public schools, and English is the language of instruction for Science and Maths. Tamil and several Chinese dialects are spoken by respective communities. The indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak speak their ancestral languages (Dayak etc). Multilingualism is common in Malaysia, most notably among the Chinese and Indian communities.
Philippines: Filipino and English are official languages in the constitution. Some people in native Tagalog areas are bilingual, while in non-Tagalog speaking areas it is common to be multilingual in the native and/or regional language/s, Filipino and English.
Singapore: English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil are all official languages. As English links the different races, a group with diverse races communicate using English. In addition to English, individuals speak their ethnic language, a dialect (especially for Chinese elders), and usually have some proficiency with a third language from one of the four, or commonly Japanese, French or German.
Taiwan: Mandarin Chinese is the "official" language, but Taiwanese is commonly used in most people (especially adults and elders). In the Hakka community, some people are trilingual in Hakka, Mandarin and Taiwanese. Some 10 Aboriginal languages are also spoken in the mountain and eastern portion of the island.
Belgium has three official languages: Dutch (59%) in the North, French (31%) in the South and a small minority speaks German. Its bilingual capital, Brussels (10%), is mainly French. In Flanders, 59% and 53% of the Flemings know French or English respectively, in Wallonia only 19% and 17% know Dutch or English. In each region, Belgium's third official language, German, is notably less known than Dutch, French or English..[3] Wallonia recognises all of its vernacular dialect groups as regional languages, Flanders doesn't.
In the Czech Republic, several municipalities of Zaolzie area have official bilingualism (Czech and Polish). Bilingual signs are permitted if a minority constitutes at least a 10% of the population of the municipality.
Estonia has one official language, Estonian, but also sizaeable Russian-speaking community (30% in 2000). Russian can be used in communication with local government where it's native to most population (Article 52 of the Constitution). Most Estonians can speak Russian.[4]
Finland has two "national languages", Finnish and Swedish, and the minority languages Sami (Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami), Romani and Sign language are recognized by the constitution. Swedish is spoken by a minority, about 5.5% native speakers (Swedish-speaking Finns) concentrated along the coast and on the Åland Islands. Municipalities are bilingual if the Swedish or Finnish minority is at least 6–8 %. Åland is monolingually Swedish by law. Sami is official language (besides Finnish) in the municipalities of northern Finland.
Ireland, where two languages have some form of official status. Irish (one of the Goidelic languages) is the first official language while English is the second. Approximately 1.7 million Irish citizens are either fluent or semi-fluent in Irish, where an estimated 42% of the population are competent Irish speakers.[5].However, the English language is used as the main community language outside of desginated Gaeltacht regions. Though people who completed their education through Gaelscoil are found to be using Irish as their main language, with its daily use by citizens increasing.
Italy. The official language overall is Italian, while bilingualism is applied in some territories. In the province of Bolzano-Bozen German is co-official. In the Aosta Valley region French is co-official, as is Slovene in some municipalities of the provinces of Trieste and Gorizia. Ladin municipalities of Bolzano-Bozen are trilingual (Italian, Ladin, and German). Italian law n. 482/1999 enforce bilingualism also in Sardinia (with Sardu), Friuli (with Friulian), Western Alps in Piedmont (with Occitan) and other linguistic minorities.
Latvia has one official language, Latvian, but also a sizeable Russian-speaking minority (37%) in 2000. Most Latvians can speak Russian.
Luxembourg is a rare example of a truly trilingual society, in that it not only has three official languages, Luxembourgish, French and German, but has a trilingual education system. For the first four years, Luxembourgish is the medium of instruction, before giving way to German, which in turn gives way to French. (In addition, children learn English and another European language, usually Spanish or Italian.) Similarly in the country's parliament, debates are conducted in Luxembourgish, draft legislation is drafted in German, while the statute laws are in French.
Malta has two official languages, Maltese and English. Italian is also spoken by a large percentage of the population.
The Netherlands has two official languages, Dutch which is the primary language and Frisian which is recognized as a minority language and spoken by between 300,000 and 700,000 people. Frisian is mostly spoken in the province of Friesland (Fryslân) where it is the official first language, though a large majority of the population speaks Dutch most of the time.
In Romania, the official language is Romanian but significant minority languages are recognized on the local level. The biggest ethnic minority is the Hungarian community of 1.4 million (6.6 %).
ex-Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact countries: many people fluently speak Russian, especially in Slavic countries within the area of the former USSR (typically in Belarus and Ukraine), along with Moldova, which has a Slavic minority. However, few Polish, Slovak or Czech people speak Russian, despite huge expenditures in the past.
Republics of Russia. The language of titular nation is also official in those republics (though usage of a titular language is often not widespread).
Among the Maris, widespread trilingualism has been reported (Mari-Russian-Tatar; Mari-Chuvash-Russian; Mari-Udmurt-Russian; even four languages used intermittently: Mari-Tatar-Udmurt-Russian in Mari-Turek areas)[7]
In the 1980s, almost all the Karelians were bilingual, speaking both Karelian and Russian (being Karelian-Finnish bilingual in Finland). Trilingualism Karelian-Finnish-Russian also occurred in the Karelian ASSR.[7]
Abkhazia. According to Georgian law, Georgian and Abkhazian are official languages; according to Abkhazian law — Abkhazian and Russian. Elder generation of Abkhaz spoke Georgian, Russian and Abkhaz language
Slovenia. In the costal area (Koper, Izola and Piran) Italian is also an official language, in addition to Slovene. In the eastern part of Prekmurje, Hungarian is used as an official language next to Slovene. In the bilingual areas, all children are taught both languages.
Sweden, with no official language (as of spring 2009), but Swedish as the main language and Finnish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sami and Yiddish recognized as minority languages. Meänkieli, a variant of Finnish, is spoken in Tornedalen and Haparanda in North Bothnia. Meänkieli, Finnish and Sami have a special status in the areas were speakers are significant minorities.
In Carpathian Ruthenia, Ukraine, Slovaks living near Uzhgorod speak Ukrainian and Hungarian in addition to their mother tongue, Slovakian. In villages near Mukachevo Germans (Swabian dialect speakers) also speak Hungarian and Ukrainian.
the United Kingdom
Ulster Scots, a variety of Scots, is spoken by some in northern regions, but again English is far more commonly used and Ulster Scots is less actively used in media. Irish and Ulster Scots now both have official status in Northern Ireland as part of the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
Scotland. 58,652 Gaelic speakers, mostly concentrated in the Highlands and the Hebrides, the traditional heartland of Gaelic culture. Also Scots with approximately 2 to 3 million speakers - a Germanic language closely related to English.
Wales with 611,000 Welsh speakers, including the majority of the population in parts of north and west Wales.[9]
Oceania
In New Zealand, a small percentage of the population has some reasonable degree of bilingualism with English and Māori, mostly among the Māori themselves; few are fully fluent in Māori. New Zealand Sign Language is also an official language. English is the main language with over 99% of the population speaking it fluently.
Multilingual cities
In many cities around the globe, a majority of the population frequently speaks two or more languages. There are also large cities with high numbers of immigrants such as London, New York and Toronto, where dozens of languages can be heard, but the majority of the population are monolingual.
There are many more cities of multi-lingual speakers where multilingualism a part of everyday life.
^Van Parijs, Philippe, Professor of economic and social ethics at the UCLouvain, Visiting Professor at Harvard University and the KULeuven. "Belgium's new linguistic challenges"(pdf 0.7 MB). KVS Express (supplement to newspaper De Morgen) March–April 2007: Article from original source (pdf 4.9 MB) pages 34–36 republished by the Belgian Federal Government Service (ministry) of Economy — Directorate-general Statistics Belgium. Retrieved 2007-05-05. {{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) — The linguistic situation in Belgium (and in particular various estimations of the population speaking French and Dutch in Brussels) is discussed in detail.
