A Country of Dialects, Now Speaking Italian. And English

The use of local dialects in Italian families has fallen by more than two thirds over the past four decades, while standard Italian and foreign languages have become more widespread.

According to a 2024 survey by Istat, Italy’s national statistics office, the share of residents who speak exclusively or mainly dialect at home declined from 32% in 1988 to 9.6% in 2024.

At the same time, nearly one person in two (48.4%) now speaks only or mainly Italian in all social contexts – at home, with friends and with strangers – up from 40.6% in 2015. The trend is more pronounced in central and northern regions.

What dialect means in Italy

The word “dialect” in Italy does not simply refer to a regional accent. Many Italian dialects are historically distinct Romance languages that developed from Latin independently of standard Italian, which is based largely on the Florentine variety of the 14th century, associated with writers such as Dante Alighieri. Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian and Sardinian, for example, have their own grammar, vocabulary and literary traditions.

In Tuscany, everyday speech still includes local expressions and pronunciation features linked to Florentine and Tuscan varieties. However, younger generations increasingly use standard Italian in most contexts, especially in education, work and online communication.

Dialect mostly confined to family and older generations

The Istat data show that dialect use is now largely limited to close personal relationships.

About 42% of residents use dialect in at least one social context, either exclusively or alongside Italian. It is more common within families (38%) and among friends (35.5%), but only 13% report using dialect with strangers.

Exclusive or predominant use of dialect in all contexts is rare, at 2.3% of the population, and is mostly found among older people.

Women are more likely than men to speak mainly Italian, according to the survey.

Foreign languages on the rise, led by English

The survey also highlights a gradual increase in foreign language knowledge.

Seven in ten people (69.5%) say they know at least one foreign language, up 9.4 percentage points compared with 2015.

English is by far the most widely known foreign language (58.6%), followed by French (33.7%) and Spanish (16.9%). However, more than half of respondents (56.2%) describe their proficiency in the foreign language they know best as no more than “sufficient”, suggesting that fluency remains limited.

A changing linguistic landscape

Istat notes that the growth of the foreign population in recent years has not significantly altered overall linguistic behaviour. Even when considering only residents whose mother tongue is Italian, the same trends are visible: a steady expansion of Italian in everyday life and a gradual contraction of dialect use.

Overall, the 2024 data point to a country where standard Italian has become dominant across generations and social settings, while local dialects – long a central element of community identity – are increasingly confined to informal and family spheres.

(Cover photo by Mircea Iancu from Pixabay)

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