The portal "lecanton27.ch", calling itself the first Albanian newspaper in Switzerland, published yesterday (March 19) an article titled "Albanian is the first most spoken foreign language, or the 5th official language in Switzerland ? "
Hibrid.info has verified and found that, contrary to the title, the article's headline states that Albanian is the most spoken language in Switzerland.
But, hibrid.info has proven that the Albanian language is neither the most spoken foreign language, as claimed in the title, nor the most spoken language in Switzerland, as presented in the introduction to this article.
Based on the number of followers of the portal page “lecanton27.ch” on Facebook (here), hibrid.info estimates that the article's claims may have an impact on a considerable number of readers.
Link to the article published by the portal "lecanton27.ch":
Excerpt from the article, which provides information that Albanian is the most spoken language in Switzerland:
Bern, March 19 - At the beginning of this week, the latest statistics on foreign languages spoken in Switzerland were published. According to a new survey by the Federal Statistical Office, in absolute terms, for the first time, Albanian is the most spoken language in Switzerland, ahead of Portuguese. Even English, reports the Albanian-language Swiss newspaper Le Canton27.ch.
Albanian overtakes Portuguese for the first time in ten years. According to a survey by the Federal Statistical Office, more people speak Albanian than Portuguese or English in Switzerland. The first for at least ten years. Albanian the 5th "official" language in Switzerland? It leads, ahead of Portuguese and English, as the most spoken language in this country
Since the portal in question referred to data from the Federal Statistical Office, hibrid.info searched the website of this Swiss state agency and found data on the languages spoken by the permanent resident population, published on March 18 (see here).
Based on information published by the Federal Statistical Office, it is shown that the most spoken foreign language in Switzerland is English, while the language with the largest number of speakers among the official languages in the country is German.
Table from the Federal Statistical Office for the main languages of the permanent resident population:
| Die fägtsten Hauptsprachen, 2022 | su-d-01.08.01.01 | ||||
| Permanent resident population | |||||
| Quantity Persons | Confidence interval ± (in %) 1) | Share in % 2) | Confidence interval ± (in percentage points) 1) | ||
| Permanent resident population | 8,622,735 | * | * | * | |
| German or Swiss German | 5,329,020 | 0.2 | 61.8 | 0.1 | |
| French | 1,964,103 | 0.4 | 22.8 | 0.1 | |
| Italienisch oder Tessiner / bündneritalienischer Dialect | 675,153 | 0.8 | 7.8 | 0.1 | |
| Rätoromanisch | 39,731 | 4.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | |
| English | 529,888 | 1.1 | 6.1 | 0.1 | |
| Albanisch | 292,717 | 1.4 | 3.4 | 0.0 | |
| portugiesisch | 292,219 | 1.5 | 3.4 | 0.1 | |
| Spanish | 202,777 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 0.0 | |
| Serbian or Croatian | 187,422 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 0.0 | |
| Other languages | 732,831 | 1.0 | 8.5 | 0.1 | |
| Total of the mentioned languages 3) | 10,245,861 | * | 118.8 | * | |
Analyze:
The claim in the title of an article published by “lecanton27.ch”, which informs that Albanian is the most spoken foreign language in Switzerland, is not true. Hibrid.info has found that English is the foreign language with the largest number of speakers.
Likewise, the claim within the article that Albanian is the most widely spoken language in Switzerland is not sustainable, since the language with the largest number of speakers in Switzerland is German.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this article as "Disinformation".
Rating:
"Disinformation" is defined as information content that contains a "mix" of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful attributes, and that is created and/or distributed with the deliberate intention of causing harm. The motive behind the producers/distributors of disinformation content lies in achieving a political, financial, psychological or social goal.