Multilingual Swiss: Myth or Fact?
More than two-thirds of the Swiss population over the age of 15 regularly use more than one language. English is the most widely spoken non-native language and also the most frequently learned language in Switzerland.
It is well known that Switzerland has four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. For internationally active companies, it is more interesting to know how multilingual the Swiss are and whether it is easy to find multilingual employees in Switzerland.
The answer to this question is strikingly simple: yes. Around two-thirds of the Swiss population regularly use more than one language – at least once a week – whether at work, in conversation with their relatives or when consuming media. 38% regularly use two languages, 21% three, 6.4% four and 1.7% even five or more.
What languages do people speak?
76% of the population regularly uses German, 65% Swiss German, 39% French, 16.9% Italian and 0.9% Romansh.
As the most common non-native language, English is regularly used by 45% of the population in Switzerland. Young people in particular speak English. Nearly three-quarters of 15- to 24-year-olds use it at least once a week.
The second most used non-native language is Spanish, at 6.3%, followed by Portuguese, at 4.8%.
Learning languages for the job is widespread
In Switzerland, one in five people aged 25 and older learns one or more languages. The 25- to 39-year-olds in particular are expanding their language skills. English is learned most eagerly (34%), followed by German and French with 15% each, followed by Spanish and Italian. The main motivation for learning a language is the job.
Kathrin Scherer
Head of Business Development
Phone +41 41 367 44 07
