The historic and

official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

is Catalan, a

Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

. Because of immigration, historical links, and close geographic proximity, Spanish and French are commonly spoken. There is a sizeable immigrant community that speaks Portuguese. Most Andorran residents can speak one or more of these, in addition to Catalan. Spanish was the most common mother tongue in Andorra according to mother tongue percentage statistics by the Andorran Government released in 2018. In 2022, Catalan became the most common mother tongue used by 55.2% of the Andorran population.

Catalan

Catalan is the only official language of Andorra. It is also the historical and traditional language of the country used by government, television, radio, and other national media and is the main language of all the people living in the territory of Andorran nationality, who constitute 44% of the total population. The local dialect is Northwestern Catalan. The

Government of Andorra The politics of Andorra take place in a framework of a parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutional monarchy, and a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government, with the Head of Government of Andorra as chief executi ...

has recently begun enforcing the learning and use of the language within the immigrant labour force as a means to fully apply the constitution and overcome the issue of people living in a country without knowing its official language. Despite heavy tourism from Spanish-speakers from Spain, both public and private signage in Andorra is mostly monolingual in Catalan. Andorra is the only country in which Catalan is the sole official language and the only country in which Catalan has official status in all of its territory.

Spanish

Spanish is the most important language in Andorra after Catalan. It is the main language of about 70% of Spanish national immigrants. Most of them came to the country between 1955 and 1985. Since then, Spanish has become the second most used language of the population living in the country, and moreover is the dominant language of communication amongst people of different linguistic backgrounds, thus triggering recent government efforts to promote more general and universal use of Catalan.

Portuguese

In the past there was sizeable Portuguese immigration to Andorra; the number of Portuguese nationals with residence in the country peaked in 2008, with 13,794 people, that is, 16.3% of the total population.

French

The nearby border with

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the reduced tax-free cost of living, and job opportunities in the thriving tourist industry have resulted in 7% of the country's total population being French nationals, mainly immigrants from

Francophone Africa African French () is the umbrella grouping of varieties of the French language spoken throughout Francophone Africa. Used mainly as a secondary language or ''lingua franca'', it is spoken by an estimated 320 million people across 34 coun ...

. It is the main language of communication next to Catalan in Pas de la Casa on the French border. As with Spanish, children can be taught at school in the French language, if parents so choose.

References

External links

Ethnologue report for Andorra

CIA – The World Factbook

Departament d'Estadistica

Tractaments protocul-laris
{{Languages of Europe