Dutch speaking countries
Dutch is an official language in Netherlands, Belgium, Caribbean Netherlands, Curacao, Aruba and Sint Maarten and is spoken in Canada as monther tongue by a part of the population. The Dutch language (native name: Nederlands, Vlaams) has its roots in the Indo-European language family.As a percentage of the total population, the largest share of around 96 percent is in the Netherlands. A total of about 23.3 million people worldwide speak Dutch as their mother tongue.
| Country | Region | Official language | Distribution | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | Western Europe | yes | 95.6 % | 16,762,000 |
| Belgium | Western Europe | yes | 54.2 % | 6,283,000 |
| Canada | North America | no | 0.5 % | 191,000 |
| Curacao | Caribbean | yes | 8.0 % | 12,000 |
| Aruba | Caribbean | yes | 6.1 % | 6,000 |
| Caribbean Netherlands | Caribbean | yes | 8.8 % | 2,000 |
| Sint Maarten | Caribbean | yes | 5.0 % | 2,000 |
Unless otherwise described in the text, this page is about native speakers — not the total number of speakers. How many people understand or speak Dutch 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.