What Languages Are Spoken In Hungary?

Learning Hungarian is a complicated endeavor.
Learning Hungarian is a complicated endeavor.

Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and is spoken by the majority of the country’s population. Several minority languages like Russian, Romanian, Croatian, Serbian, Slovak, Ukrainian, etc., are spoken by the minority communities of the country. English and German are the popular foreign languages spoken in Hungary.

The Official Language Of Hungary

Hungarian is spoken as the official language of Hungary. It is not only the most spoken language in the country but also Europe’s 13th most widely spoken language. Hungarian serves as the native language of around 13 million native speakers. In Hungary, 99.6% of the population speak Hungarian. 99% of these Hungarian speakers speak the language as their first language. Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family and is unrelated to most of the languages spoken in the neighboring nations. It is one of the most spoken Uralic languages and the only one of this family that is spoken in Central Europe. Hungarian is also spoken by ethnic Hungarians in other parts of the world. Romania, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Israel and a few other countries have significant Hungarian-speaking populations.

Minority Languages Of Hungary

German

German is spoken by the ethnic Germans living in Hungary. A significant population of ethnic Germans lives in and around the Mecsek Mountains of the country.

Slovak

The official language of Slovakia, Slovak is spoken by the Slovak minority community in Hungary. This community lives mainly near Békéscsaba and in the North Hungarian Mountains.

Serbian

Serbian is mainly spoken in parts of Southern Hungary by the Serbian minority population.

Slovene

The language is common along the Hungary-Slovenia border where it is spoken by the Slovene minority groups.

Croatian

The Croatian speaking population is mainly concentrated in Southern Hungary.

Romanian

Romanian is spoken in and around the Gyula region by the ethnic Romanians of Hungary.

Romani

The ethnic Romanis speak this language in Hungary.

Foreign Languages Spoken In Hungary

English and German are the most spoken foreign languages of Hungary. As per the 2011 census, 16% of the Hungarian population, accounting for 1,589,180 speakers, speak English as a foreign language. German is spoken by 1,111,997 speakers, accounting for 11.2% of the Hungarian population.

What Languages Are Spoken In Hungary?

RankLanguageNumber of speakers (2011)
1Hungarian9,896,333 (99.6%)
2English1,589,180 (16.0%)
3German1,111,997 (11.2%)
4Russian158,497 (1.6%)
5Romanian128,852 (1.3%)
6French117,121 (1.2%)
7Italian80,837 (0.8%)
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