Recently published data show a rise in the percentage of French speakers in Switzerland and a fall in the percentages speaking German, Italian and Romansh.
Between 1970 and 2018, the percentage of Swiss speaking German or Swiss German as a primary language fell from 66% to 62%. Those speaking French as their principle language rose from 18% to 23% over the same period. The percentage speaking Italian dropped from 11% to 8% and the percentage speaking primarily Romansh fell from 0.8% to 0.5%.
Foreign languages gaining the most ground as principle languages in Switzerland were English and Portuguese. In 2018, 5.8% of the population spoke English as a primary language and 3.6% spoke Portuguese.
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Federal Statistical Office data (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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