Attractive Language
German is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union European Union In 1957, Germany was one of the six founding members of today’s EU, along with France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The EU is currently made up of 27 states; the euro is the official currency in 20 of them. For Germany, European integration forms the basis for peace, security and… Read more › and ranks twelfth in the world’s most widely spoken languages. Around 130 million people around the world - above all in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol in Italy - speak German as their first language or regularly use it as a second language. Along with English, Dutch and Swedish, German is one of the 15 or so Germanic languages, a branch of the Indo-Germanic family of languages.
Where do most German learners live?
More than 15.5 million people around the world are learning German. Most of them are still in Europe, though German is growing in importance elsewhere too, especially in Africa and Asia. The number of people learning German in Africa has risen by almost 50% since 2015. This is partly because skilled workers increasingly need language qualifications. The Skilled Immigration Immigration As early as the 19th century Germany attracted a large number of immigrants and since the 1950s has emerged as the European country with the largest immigrant population. In 1950, there were about 500,000 foreigners in Germany, accounting for a mere one percent or so of the population. This has… Read more › Act that came into effect in 2020 and was reformed in 2023 makes it easier for qualified professionals from non-EU countries to migrate to Germany, thereby reinforcing this trend.
Where and how can one learn German?
Germany supports language schools at home and abroad. It also offers scholarships and provides opportunities for internationally mobile students to study in higher education. The Federal Foreign Offices uses targeted programmes run by intermediary organisations such as
- ”Dhoch3” of the German Academic Exchange Service ( DAAD DAAD The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is an organization run jointly by the German institutes of higher education. Its purpose is to promote relations between higher education institutes in Germany and abroad, especially through exchange schemes between students and academics. As a rule its… Read more › )
- or the Goethe-Institut’s “Deutsch Lehren Lernen”
to support the qualification of German teachers.
How many German schools abroad are there?
An important role in German teaching is played by 135 German schools abroad and more than 2,000 schools that provide enhanced German teaching as part of the Federal Foreign Office’s PASCH scheme (Schools: Partners for the Future).
Where can one learn German?
In 2024, around 267,000 people attended language classes at the Goethe-Institut, which offers courses and exams in German as a foreign language in almost 100 countries. Burkina Faso and Colombia both saw applications for language courses soar by around 70 percent. Though most people learn German in face-to-face classes, digital and blended learning formats are also very popular, accounting for roughly 40 percent. The Goethe-Institut’s digital learning platform was visited more than 7 million times in 2024. By April 2025, 1.3 million people had registered to use the “DW Learn German” platform of the Deutsche Welle Akademie.
How important is German as a language of science?
There has been a gradual decline in the importance of German as the international language of science. Researchers who do not speak German only rarely publish in German. By contrast, German-speaking academics actively publish in English, particularly in the natural sciences. German has a long and significant heritage as an academic language in the humanities and social sciences.
