Schaffhausen

Switzerland, canton, population 88,650, first language German.

Data as of 28 Oct 2026 · CH-SH · CLDR 49, Glottolog 5.3, States sheet

Language stack

The roles this state's languages play, with a share where a census gives one.

How this is measured

A label comes from the States sheet and has no share. A share comes from a census and names its basis. Both can exist for one language.

German

De facto · Sheet label

—

German

Administrative · Sheet label

—

German

National · Sheet label

—

French

National · Sheet label

—

Italian

National · Sheet label

—

Romansh

National · Sheet label

—

Role	Language
De facto	German
Administrative	German
National	German
National	French
National	Italian
National	Romansh

Labels from the States sheet; no census share yet.

Official-language count: 4. Diversity below is country-level.

Mother tongue

Share of residents by the first language they learned, 2024.

How this is measured

Collective census categories (such as 'other languages') are left out, so shares can sum to less than 100%. Where a census lets people name several main languages, as Switzerland's does, they can sum to more.

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86.8%

6.7%

4.2%

Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian

3.9%

1.9%

1.7%

1.4%

1.1%

#
1	German	86.8%
2	English	6.7%
3	Albanian	4.2%
4	Italian	4.0%
5	Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian	3.9%
6	Spanish	1.9%
7	French	1.7%
8	Turkish	1.4%
9	Portuguese	1.1%

Languages of Switzerland

Country-level shares: CLDR, with a census or survey where CLDR has none. They overlap and are never normalised.

How this is measured

Effective number of languages 1.00, Greenberg diversity 0.00, both on the raw shares and country-level.

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German

Official

76%

Central Alemannic

De facto official

66%

English

45%

French

Official

39%

Italian

Official

15%

4.1%

3.4%

2.6%

Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian

2.3%

Turkish

1.1%

Romansh

Official (regional)

0.5%

#
1	German	76.0%	Official
2	Central Alemannic	66.0%	De facto official
3	English	45.0%	—
4	French	39.0%	Official
5	Italian	15.0%	Official
6	Lombard	4.1%	—
7	Portuguese	3.4%	—
8	Albanian	3.0%	—
9	Spanish	2.6%	—
10	Serbian-Croatian-Bosnian	2.3%	—
11	Turkish	1.1%	—
12	Romansh	0.5%	Official (regional)

Largest 12 of 14 languages CLDR records for Switzerland.

How far lingua francas reach

Share able to hold a conversation, first or second language.

How this is measured

Each row carries its source tier. A Tier 1 census figure is this state's own; a Tier 3 figure is the country's, not this state's.

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English

Tier 3 country

45%

French

Tier 3 country

39%

Portuguese

Tier 3 country

3.4%

#
1	English	45.0%	Tier 3 country
2	French	39.0%	Tier 3 country
3	Portuguese	3.4%	Tier 3 country

Other states in Switzerland25

AargauGerman

Appenzell AusserrhodenGerman

Appenzell InnerrhodenGerman

Basel-LandschaftGerman

Basel-StadtGerman

BernGerman

FribourgFrench

GenevaFrench

GlarusGerman

GrisonsGerman

JuraFrench

LucerneGerman

Show all 25 states

NeuchâtelFrench

NidwaldGerman

ObwaldGerman

SchwyzGerman

SolothurnGerman

St. GallenGerman

ThurgoviaGerman

TicinoItalian

UriGerman

ValaisFrench

VaudFrench

ZugGerman

ZurichGerman

All states · Countries · Reach

Where these numbers come from

Unicode CLDR territoryInfo (release 49) (Unicode License v3). Country-level language shares, official status and Tier 3 reach (populationPercent is total speakers, first plus second language).
Glottolog 5.3 (CC BY 4.0). Language names, ISO 639-3 codes, families.
Database of International and Intranational Linguistic distances (DICL v2), USITC (CC BY 4.0). Country-pair linguistic proximity (loaded, not yet shown in release one).
States (ISO 3166-2) sheet, MetroAreas workbook (Citizen of Nowhere, own compilation). States, populations and the four language labels per state.
Natural Earth 1:110m Admin 0 Countries (nvkelso/natural-earth-vector) (Public domain). World outline for the language maps (world-110m.geojson, properties reduced to iso3 and name).
Country layer of this site (countries.json workbook population, World Bank iso2 and iso3, OWID country-population) (Citizen of Nowhere, own compilation; World Bank CC BY 4.0; OWID CC BY). Country population, iso2 and /countries slug joined onto languages, countries and families (speakers = share x population).

Labels are the States sheet's. Shares marked country-level are CLDR's for the whole country, not a measurement of this state. See Method.