Official languages: German, French, Luxembourgish (de jure since 1984)
Demographics of Luxembourg
The people of Luxembourg are called Luxembourgers. The population is 439,539 according to census of 2001. The population of Luxembourg as of July 2007 was estimated at 480,222 by The World Factbook.
Languages
Three languages are recognised as official in Luxembourg: French, German, and Luxembourgish. Luxembourgish is the language that Luxembourgers generally speak to each other, but it is not often written down. Most official (written) business is carried out in French. German is usually the first language taught in school and is the language of much of the media and of the church.[20] In fact, around 85% of all articles published in Luxembourg are in the German language, 12% are in French and only 3% in Luxembourgish.
In addition to the three official languages, English is taught in the compulsory schooling and much of the population of Luxembourg can speak English, at any rate in Luxembourg City. Portuguese and Italian, the languages of the two largest immigrant communities, are also spoken by large parts of the population, but by relatively few from outside their respective communities.
Luxembourgish National Institutions for Language
Institut Grand-Ducal
Guy Berg
Institut Grand-Ducal section de linguistique, d'ethnologie et d'onomastique
2a, rue Kalchesbruck L-1852 Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Tel.: +352 247 88640
guy.berg@europarl.europa.eu
