1. Italy – 58 million Italian speakers
As most of you may have imagined, Italy has the most Italian speakers. Italy is the birthplace of the Italian language, and 58 million people in Italy speak Italian.
2. Albania – 800,000 Italian speakers
Located to the east of Italy, Albania has the second-highest population of Italian speakers. There are approximately 19,000 ethnic Italian speakers in Italy. Surprisingly, most Albanians learned the language from watching Italian television programs! Interestingly, Albanians viewed Italian TV during the communist regime. They tuned into Italian TV by wiring their TVs. This was their method of overcoming Albania’s effort to block Italian television channels.
3. The United States – 709,000 Italian Speakers
709,000 individuals in America speak Italian. The states where it is spoken most include New York and New Jersey with 294,000 and 116,000 speakers, respectively.
4. Switzerland – 660,000 Italian Speakers
Located north of Italy, Switzerland has 660,000 Italian speakers. Italian is one of the four official languages of Switzerland.
5. Canada – 375,645
There are approximately 375,645 Italian speakers in Canada! There are roughly 1.4 million Canadians of Italian descent today!
