Languages in censuses

Many countries, through the use of censuses, enumerate their populations by languages and by their level of competence in using those languages.

Afghanistan

Pashto and Dari (Persian) are the official languages of Afghanistan; bilingualism is very common. Both are Indo-European languages from the Iranian languages sub-family. Dari has always been the prestige language and a lingua franca for inter-ethnic communication. It is the native tongue of the Tajiks, Hazaras, Aimaks, and Kizilbash. Pashto is the native tongue of the Pashtuns, although many Pashtuns often use Dari and some non-Pashtuns are fluent in Pashto.

Other languages, including Uzbek, Arabic, Turkmen, Balochi, Pashayi, and Nuristani languages (Ashkunu, Kamkata-viri, Vasi-vari, Tregami, and Kalasha-ala), are the native tongues of minority groups across the country and have official status in the regions where they are widely spoken. Minor languages also include Pamiri (Shughni, Munji, Ishkashimi, and Wakhi), Brahui, Hindko, and Kyrgyz. A small percentage of Afghans are also fluent in Urdu, English and other languages.

Language Dari 50% Pashto 35% Uzbek and Turkmen 11% 30 minor languages 4%

Albania

Language People Albanian 2,800,139 Greek 15,196 Macedonian 4,443 Roma 4,025 Aromanian 3,848 Turkish 714 Italian 523 Serbo-Croatian 66 Others 187 Not relevant/not stated 3,843

Algeria

The official language of Algeria is Modern Standard Arabic (literary Arabic), as specified in its constitution since 1963. In addition to this, Berber has been recognized as a "national language" by constitutional amendment since 8 May 2002. Algerian Arabic and Berber are the native languages of over 99% of Algerians, with Algerian Arabic spoken by about 72% and Berber by 27.4%. "Mais tous les arabophones d'Algérie parlent l'arabe dialectal ou l'arabe dit algérien (ou ses diverses variétés) pour communiquer entre eux. Autrement dit, à l'oral, c'est l'arabe algérien qui sert de langue véhiculaire, mais à l'écrit, c'est l'arabe classique." French, though it has no official status, is widely used in government, culture, media (newspapers) and education (from primary school), due to Algeria's colonial history and can be regarded as being a de facto co-official language of Algeria. Kabyle, the most spoken Berber language in the country, is taught and partially co-official (with a few restrictions) in parts of Kabylie.

Andorra Official language is Catalan, although the most spoken language is Spanish. Other minority languages are French and Portuguese.

Antigua and Barbuda The de facto official language is English, while Antiguan Creole is dissuaded from use. Around 10,000 inhabitants speak Spanish.

Argentina

The de facto official language is Spanish, spoken by almost all Argentines. Due to the extensive Argentine geography, Spanish has a strong variation among regions, although the prevalent dialect is Rioplatense, primarily spoken in the La Plata Basin and accented similarly to Neapolitan language.

There are several second-languages in widespread use among the Argentine population: English, taught since elementary school. 42.3% of Argentines claim to speak it, with 15.4% of them claiming to have a high level of language comprehension. Italian, by 1.5 million people. Arabic, specially its Northern Levantine dialect, by one million people. Standard German, by 400,000 people. Yiddish, by 200,000 people, the largest Jewish population in Latin America and 7th in the world. Guaraní, by 200,000 people, mostly in Corrientes, where it is official de jure. Catalan, by 174,000 people. French, including the rare Occitan language. Quechua, by 65,000 people, mostly in the Northwest. Wichí, by 53,700 people, mainly in Chaco where, along with Kom and Moqoit, it is official de jure. Vlax Romani, by 52,000 people. Japanese, by 32,000 people. Aymara, by 30,000 people, mostly in the Northwest. Ukrainian, by 27,000 people. Welsh, including its Patagonian dialect, in which 25,000 people are fluent. Some districts have recently incorporated it as an educational language.

Armenia Armenian is the only official language. Due to its Soviet past, Russian is still widely used in Armenia and could be considered as de facto second language. According to a 2013 survey, 95% of Armenians said they had some knowledge of Russian (24% advanced, 59% intermediate) compared to 40% who said they knew some English (4% advanced, 16% intermediate and 20% beginner). However, more adults (50%) think that English should be taught in public secondary schools than those who prefer Russian (44%).

Australia Although Australia has no official language, English has always been entrenched as the de facto national language. "English has no de jure status but it is so entrenched as the common language that it is de facto the official language as well as the national language." Standard Australian English serves as the standard dialect. According to the 2016 census, English is the only language spoken in the home for 72.6% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Mandarin (2.5%), Arabic (1.4%), Cantonese (1.2%), Vietnamese (1.2%), Italian (1.2%), Greek (1.0%), Tagalog (0.8%), Hindi (0.7%), Spanish (0.6%) and Punjabi (0.6%); a considerable proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual. A 2010–2011 study by the Australia Early Development Index found the most common language spoken by children after English was Arabic, followed by Vietnamese, Greek, Chinese, and Hindi.Agence France-Presse/Jiji Press, "Arabic Australia's second language", The Japan Times, 16 April 2011, p. 4. 0.3% of Australians spoke an Indigenous Australian language at home in 2016.

Austria The official and national language of Austria is German. In some regions in the east of the country Croatian is a co-official language too.

Azerbaijan Native language according to the census in 2009United Nations Statistics Division: Demographic and Social Topics: Population: Statistics: Demographic Yearbook: Introduction: United Nations Demographic Yearbook: Statistics: Population Censuses' Datasets (1995 – Present): Ethnocultural characteristics: Population by language, sex and urban/rural residence . Select filters: Country or Area—>Azerbaijan, Year—>2009, Area—>Total+Urban+Rural, Sex—>Both Sexes+Male+Female, Apply Filters.

Language Both genders Male Female Total8 922 4474 414 3984 508 049 Azerbaijani8 253 1964 101 5754 151 621 Russian122 44945 53876 911 Armenian120 23757 91262 325 Talish68 68934 15434 535 Avar46 61023 10723 503 Turkish32 06416 46515 599 Tatar24 14610 61413 532 Tat22 80311 48511 318 Ukrainian20 9889 45611 532 Tsakhur11 7345 9155 819 Georgian10 3564 9785 378 Hebrew8 4934 0464 447 Udi3 7951 8391 956 Othermostly Lezgian and also Kurdish, Kryts, Khinalug, and a few other176 88787 31489 573

Bahamas English is the most widely spoken language in the Bahamas. Bahamian Creole serves as a vernacular among much of the population. Haitian Bahamians speak Haitian Creole. 19th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers: Bahamas. June 2015

Bahrain Arabic is the official language of Bahrain, though English is widely used. Bahrani Arabic is the most widely spoken dialect of the Arabic language, though this differs slightly from standard Arabic. Among the Bahraini and non-Bahraini population, many people speak Persian, the official language of Iran, or Urdu, the official language of Pakistan. Malayalam and Nepali are also widely spoken in the Nepalese workers and Gurkha Soldiers community. Hindi is spoken among significant Indian communities.

Bangladesh According to the Report on Socio-Economic and Demographic Survey 2023 of the 2022 Bangladeshi census, 99.17% of Bangladeshis spoke the Bengali language as a mother tongue while 0.83% spoke other languages. 92.94% of people did not speak a second language; 6.10% of people spoke English as a second language; 0.80% of people spoke Bengali as a second language, and 0.17% of people spoke another language. Other languages include the Chakma language and the Santali language.

Barbados While English is the official language of Barbados, Bajan Creole is used as a vernacular tongue. 98% of Barbados' population is literate in English. Digest of Statistics 2019-2021 Barbados Ministry of Labour, Social Security, and Third Sector

Belarus According to the 2019 Belarusian census, 54.1% of the population spoke the Belarusian language natively while 42.3% spoke the Russian language. The rest of the population spoke languages such as Polish and Ukrainian. The 2019 Census of Population of the Republic of Belarus: Migration and Ethno-cultural Characteristics

Belgium

In the past, Belgium held a census each ten years, including a language census (nl/fr). Since 1932, the results of this census defined to which official language a municipality belonged (Dutch, French or German). However, this caused a lot of conflicts along the language border, in Brussels and its periphery (due to the Francization of Brussels). The territory of Belgium was consequently divided into four definitive official language areasArticle 4 of the Constitution. and the language census was abolished, effective 1 September 1963. No national language censuses have been held since then.

Bolivia According to the last census in 2012> Language People Spanish 6,097,122 Quechua 2,124,040 Aymara 1,462,286 Foreign 241,417 Guarani 57,218 Another Native 43,953 No talking 14,960

Brunei The official language of Brunei is Malay. The principal spoken language is Melayu Brunei (Brunei Malay). Brunei Malay is rather divergent from standard Malay and the rest of the Malay dialects, being about 84% cognate with standard Malay,P. W. Martin and G. Poedjosoedarmo (1996). An overview of the language situation in Brunei Darussalam. In P. W. Martin, C. Ozog & G. Poedjosoedarmo (Eds.), Language use & language change in Brunei Darussalam (pp. 1–23). Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies. p. 7. and is mostly mutually unintelligible with it. English and Chinese are also widely spoken, English is also used in business, as a working language, and as the language of instruction from primary to tertiary education,A. C. K. Ozog (1996). The unplanned use of English: The case of Brunei Darussalam. In P. W. Martin, C. Ozog & G. Poedjosoedarmo (Eds.), Language use & language change in Brunei Darussalam (pp. 156–166). Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies.K. Dunseath (1996). Aspects of language maintenance and language shift among the Chinese community in Brunei. In P. W. Martin, C. Ozog & G. Poedjosoedarmo (Eds.), Language use & language change in Brunei Darussalam (pp. 280–301). Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies . and there is a relatively large expatriate community. Other languages spoken include Kedayan, Tutong, Murut and Dusun.

Bulgaria In the Bulgarian census, the question about the mother tongue and the ethnic group is an optional one. The results among the people that have answered both questions according to the latest census in 2011 are: Language People Bulgarian 5,631,759 Turkish 604,246 Romani 280,979 Russian 15,211 Armenian 5,567 Romanian 5,454 Greek 3,182 Aromanian 1,815 Ukrainian 1,691 Macedonian 1,376 Tatar 1,367 Arabic 1,321 Hebrew 141 Other 9,946 Does not self-identify 47,458 Did not answer 753,057 Population 7,364,570

Canada