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French is an official language in 32 independent nations which is the second most geographically widespread official language in the world after English.French is also the second most geographically widespread language in the world after English, with about 60 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. [1]
Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, and Swedish are all official languages at the national level in multiple countries (see table above). In addition, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak, and Slovene are official languages in multiple EU countries at the regional level.
In the European Union, French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries.
European French (French: français d'Europe, français européen) is the variety of French spoken in Europe in French speaking countries or areas.. In Europe, French is spoken by 71 million native speakers, making French the second most spoken native language in Europe after German and 210 million Europeans can speak French, making French the second most spoken language in Europe after English.
Five languages have more than 50 million native speakers in Europe: Russian, English, French, Italian, and German. Russian is the most-spoken native language in Europe, [ 4] and English has the largest number of speakers in total, including some 200 million speakers of English as a second or foreign language. (See English language in Europe .)
Luxembourg is a representative democracy headed by a constitutional monarch, Grand Duke Henri, making it the world's only remaining sovereign grand duchy . Luxembourg is a developed country with an advanced economy and one of the world's highest GDP (PPP) per capita as per IMF and World Bank estimates.
In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as La Francophonie. The perceived threat from Anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France. [citation needed]
Former Belgian UN-protectorate. In 2009, became a member of the Commonwealth, but remains a member within Francophonie. Former French and British colony. Antillean Creole, a French-based creole language, is spoken by 90% of the population. French is the native language of about 20% of all Swiss.