The majority of Germans only speak German at home, according to the statistics office. Where this is not the case, the main languages spoken are Turkish, Russian and Arabic. For only around five percent of the population, German does not play a role at all at home.
In almost 80 percent of private households in Germany, only German is spoken within their own four walls. Another 15 percent are so-called multilingual people who use at least one other language at home, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on International Mother Language Day.
While for almost a third of the multilingual people the language mainly spoken at home is German, a good two-thirds communicated mainly using another language. The remaining five percent therefore do not speak German in the household, but only one or more other languages.
Among the people who mainly use another language for communication at home, Turkish is the most common at 15 percent. This is followed by Russian (13 percent), Arabic (10 percent), Polish (7 percent) and English (6 percent).
"Since these are the results of the 2021 microcensus, possible effects of population development in Germany as a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine are not yet shown," emphasized the statistical office. The microcensus is a sample survey in which around one percent of the population is surveyed each year. All information is based on self-declaration by the respondents.
According to the information, German is also used by many people with a migration background to communicate in their own households: almost a third (32 percent) of the approximately 22.6 million people with a migration background spoke German exclusively at home. In addition to German, half used at least one other language to communicate with members of the household. Another 18 percent of people with a migration background spoke only one or more languages other than German at home, the statisticians found out.
