What languages do people usually speak at home?

Most people in the Netherlands usually speak Dutch at home. That was the case for three-quarters of the population aged 15 years or older. A quarter of people usually speak a different language at home. In some cases this is a dialect or regional language (Frisian, Limburgish or Low Saxon) or another language, such as English, Polish or Turkish.

Around 10 percent of those aged 15 and over speak one of the three officially recognised regional languages at home: Frisian (2 percent), Low Saxon (4 percent) or Limburgish (3 percent). Low Saxon is spoken mainly in the eastern provinces of Gelderland, Overijssel, Drenthe and Groningen. Five percent of those aged 15 and over speak a dialect at home. Around 9 percent speak another language, such as Turkish, English, Arabic or Berber. Overall, almost a quarter of the population of the Netherlands usually speak a language other than Dutch at home.

People from Limburg and Friesland/Fryslân are the least likely to speak Dutch at home

In Limburg, less than half of the population (44 percent) usually speak Dutch at home, and in Friesland half of people speak mainly Dutch at home. Among people living in Friesland, 42 percent usually speak Frisian at home, while among people living in Limburg, 48 percent speak Limburgish.

Low Saxon is widely spoken in the northeast of the Netherlands: 28 percent of people in Drenthe, 20 percent of people in Overijssel and 19 percent of the people in the province of Groningen speak Low Saxon. In Zeeland and Noord-Brabant, dialects not among the officially recognised regional languages are quite often spoken at home.

The highest share of Dutch speakers is found in the populous western provinces of Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Utrecht and Flevoland. In Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland, over 12 percent usually speak another language at home, such as English, Turkish, Arabic, Berber or Polish. These figures are from Statistics Netherlands’ Social Cohesion and Well-being Survey, which was carried out among more than 7.5 thousand people in 2019. The figures relate to 2021, 2023 and 2024.