section_path: Demographics/Languages
section_name: Languages
paragraph_text: Languages
  
  German is the official and predominantly spoken language in Germany. It is one of 24 official and working languages of the European Union, and one of the three procedural languages of the European Commission, alongside English and French. German is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union, with around 100 million native speakers.
  
  Recognised native minority languages in Germany are Danish, Low German, Low Rhenish, Sorbian, Romani, North Frisian and Saterland Frisian; they are officially protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The most used immigrant languages are Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish, Polish, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian and other Balkan languages, as well as Russian. Germans are typically multilingual: 67% of German citizens claim to be able to communicate in at least one foreign language and 27% in at least two.