Learning German is popular in these countries

Poland is the country with the most people learning German as a foreign language: nearly 2 million. One reason is surely the economic ties between the two countries and their geographical proximity. However, fewer Polish people are learning German since English was introduced as the first foreign language almost everywhere in Poland.

In France, German has the reputation of being a difficult and elitist language, but all the same, 19% of all French students are learning it — around 1.19 million. Among them, 97% are learning German at school. And the 2019 Aachen Treaty on France-German Cooperation and Integration aims to further boost the number of people in France who learn German.

The number of German students in Egypt has grown by 60% to 405,262 since the last survey in 2015. The Egyptian government now plans to offer German as a second foreign language at all state schools from the 7th (instead of the 10th) grade. There is also a growing number of universities offering German as a second foreign language; they have tripled from 12 to 36.

Nearly one out of two Mexicans (46%) learns German at a university. Among them, one out of four learn the language in adult education classes. Mexico is a priority country for the German government's skilled worker immigration law, a fact that is likely to further increase interest in the language among adults. A total of 85,896 people in Mexico are enrolled in German-language classes.

The number of people learning German in Kenya has more than doubled since the last survey, from fewer than 6,000 five years ago to 13,045 (+117%). People mainly learn German in school, where their number increased from 2,536 to 10,000. Many want to study or work in Germany.

About 211,000 people are learning German in India — an increase of 57,000 compared to 2015. While German is in second place behind French in schools (149,000 learners), interest in universities offering German is huge, where the number of students has shot from 2,300 to about 30,000 students, a 13-fold increase. Germany is considered to be an attractive destination for study and research.

After a steady decrease over the past years, the number of German language learners in Russia is now on the rise again for the first time. Since 2015, the number of learners has increased by approximately 250,000 to 1.8 million (2015: 1.55 million). This could be due to education reforms that stipulate a mandatory second foreign language. German is even a requirement in about 40% of all schools.