In Germany households predominantly speak German. According to the Federal Statistical Office’s micro‑census results for 2024, about 77 % of residents used only German at home.
Seventeen percent of households are multilingual, using German together with at least one other language. Among these, roughly a quarter (26 %) rely on German most often in their homes, while three‑quarters (74 %) use another language as their primary means of communication. The remaining 6 % of the population spoke no German at home, speaking only one or more different languages.
In total, 15.5 million people communicated at home mainly or exclusively in a language other than German. Turkish was the most frequent, accounting for 14 % of these households, followed by Russian (12 %) and Arabic (9 %).
Even among those with an immigration background, most also speak German at home, often alongside additional languages. Among the 21.4 million people with such a background, 22 % use only German at home. More than half (55 %) use German in addition to at least one other language.
Of the multilingual immigrants, 22 % predominantly speak German at home, whereas 78 % predominantly use another language. About 23 % of people with an immigration background do not speak German at home at all. A person is considered to have an immigration background if they or both of their parents immigrated to Germany after 1950.