Switzerland

Summary

Switzerland is a country in Europe that is home to 10 living indigenous languages. Two of these, French and Italian, are official languages of the country. Another, Romansh, is an official language in part of the country. In addition, 3 non-indigenous languages are established within the country. One of these, Standard German, is also an official language of the country. The literacy rate in Switzerland is 99%. In formal education, 4 indigenous languages are used as languages of instruction.

Population

Geography
Size
8,716,000
total✵
10
languages✵
99% (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina 2018)
literate✵
Vitality
1. Institutional
  5
2. Stable
  5
3. Endangered
  2
4. Extinct
  0
Details
This graph shows the profile of languages in Switzerland with respect to their level of language vitality.
Institutional — The language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community.
Stable — The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
Endangered — It is no longer the norm that children learn and use this language.
Extinct - The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language.
These four summary levels have been derived by grouping levels in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which is the more fine-grained scale that Ethnologue uses to assess the status of every language in terms of development versus endangerment; see Language Status for a description of the levels of that scale. See also the pages on Development and Endangerment for more discussion.