Albanian speaking countries
Albanian is an official language in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia and is spoken in 4 other countries as monther tongue by a part of the population. The Albanian language (native name: Shqip) has its roots in the Indo-European language family.As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 98 percent is in Albania. A total of about 5.2 million people worldwide speak Albanian as their mother tongue.
| Country | Region | Official language | Distribution | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | Southern Europe | yes | 97.9 % | 2,753,000 |
| Kosovo | Southern Europe | yes | 94.5 % | 1,688,000 |
| North Macedonia | Southern Europe | yes | 25.1 % | 518,000 |
| Italy | Southern Europe | no | 0.2 % | 118,000 |
| Switzerland | Western Europe | no | 1.3 % | 113,000 |
| Montenegro | Southern Europe | no | 5.3 % | 33,000 |
| Croatia | Southern Europe | no | 0.4 % | 16,000 |
Unless otherwise described in the text, this page is about native speakers — not the total number of speakers. How many people understand or speak Albanian as a subsequently learned language is not the subject of this page. Countries where native speakers make up only a few thousand, or even a few hundred people, or countries with a percentage well below 1% are unlikely to be listed here.