List of countries and territories where German is an official language

The following is a list of the countries and territories where German is an official language. It includes countries that have German as their nationwide official language, as well as dependent territories with German as a co-official language.
All countries and territories where German has some officiality are located in Europe.

German as an official language

is the official language of six countries, all of which lie in central and western Europe. These countries also form the Council for German Orthography and are referred to as the German Sprachraum. Since 2004, Meetings of German-speaking countries have been held annually with six participants: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland:

Subdivisions of countries

While not official at the national level, German is a co-official language in subdivisions of the countries listed below. In each of these regions, German is an official language on the administrative level.

Region	Country	Population 2006/2011	Native speakers	Notes
Autonomous Province of South Tyrol	Italy	511,750	354,643	Co-official language on province level; equal to Italian
Opole Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship	Poland	250,000	~50,000	Auxiliary language in 31 communes; also national minority language

Other legal statuses

There are other political entities which acknowledge other legal statuses for the German language or one of its dialects. While these may cover minority rights, support of certain language facilities, and the promotion of cultural protection/heritage, they do not encompass the establishment of German as an "official" language, i.e., being required in public offices or administrative texts.
These countries include:

Although in France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as "regional languages" according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998, the French government has not yet ratified the treaty, and therefore those varieties have no official legal status.
Due to the German diaspora, many other countries with sizable populations of German L1 speakers include Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, as well as the United States. However, in none of these countries does German or a German variety have any legal status.
Section 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 acknowledges German as a language commonly used by communities in South Africa though not being an official language.

International institutions

German is an official language of the following international institutions:

Organisation	Number of official languages	Headquarters
European Patent Organisation	3	Munich, Germany
Unified Patent Court	3	Paris, France
European Space Agency	3	Paris, France
European Union	24	Brussels, Belgium
European Commission	3	Brussels, Belgium
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe	6	Vienna, Austria
International Union of Railways	3	Paris, France
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts	3	Reading, UK
International Trade Union Confederation	4	Brussels, Belgium
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers	4	Frankfurt, Germany
Danube Commission	3	Budapest, Hungary
European Investment Bank	3	Kirchberg, Luxembourg
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development	4	London, UK