The German (Deutsch in German) language is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. German is closely related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. German is spoken by approximately 100 million native speakers and also around 80 million non-native speakers around the world. Standard German is widely taught in schools and universities in Europe. Worldwide, German accounts for the most written translations into and from a language.

German is spoken primarily in Germany (95%), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%)

Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Alto Adige/Südtirol), in the East Cantons of Belgium, and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County of Denmark.
Some German-speaking communities still exist in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and above all in Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities.

German is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.

In Luxembourg and the surrounding areas, big parts of the native population speak German dialects, and some also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), However, in the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street.