The Indo-European language family encompasses the majority of European languages. As of 2018, 94 per cent of Europeans were native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three biggest phyla are Romance, Germanic, and Slavic, each with more than 200 million speakers. This accounts for about 90 per cent of Europeans. The majority of the 45 million Europeans who speak non-Indo-European languages belong to the Uralic or Turkic language family. Smaller groupings (such as Basque and Caucasus languages) make for less than 1% of the European population. Immigration has resulted in large populations of African and Asian language speakers, accounting for around 4% of the population, with Arabic being the most frequently spoken. Russian, French, Italian, German, and English are the five languages with more than 50 million native speakers in Europe. Russian is Europe's most widely spoken native language, whereas English has the most overall speakers. Over 200 million people speak English as a second or foreign language.

10 most spoken languages in Europe

 Russian

In Europe, Russian is the most widely spoken language. There are 110 million people in European Russia, and 106 million of them speak Russian. Russian is mostly spoken in the continent's eastern regions.

German

German is Europe's second most frequently spoken language, and it’s known as the "money language." In Europe, there are around 97 million German speakers. Because Germany is Europe's economic superpower, people who understand the language have a plethora of job options. As a result, many newcomers have chosen to study German.

French

More than 66 million people speak French in Europe, making it the continent's third most widely spoken language. It is a member of the Indo-European language family that originated in Gaul. French is a Romance language that is spoken in France, Monaco, and Western Switzerland, among other countries.

Italian

Italian is Europe's fourth most widely spoken language, with over 65 million speakers spread throughout the continent. Italy, San Marino, Vatican City, and Croatia all speak Italian as their official language.

English

The English language originated in early medieval England. It is currently spoken all over the world. English is the sixth most popular language in Europe, spoken by around 60 million people.

Polish

Approximately 38.5 million people throughout Europe speak Polish. It is Poland's native tongue, although minorities outside the nation use it as well.

Spanish

In Europe, 38 million people speak Spanish. The language is referred to as Spanish as Castilian because it originated in the Castile area of Spain.

Ukrainian

Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine. 36 million people throughout Europe speak Ukrainian.

Romanian

With almost 22 million speakers, Romanian is Europe's eighth most widely spoken language. It is a native and official language in Romania and Moldova. Romanian is also one of the European Union's official languages.

Dutch

Around 22 million individuals in Europe speak Dutch as their primary language. After English and German, the Dutch language is the third most widely spoken Germanic language.