The geographical distribution of speakers of Macedonian refers to the total number of native speakers of Macedonian, an East South Slavic language that serves as the official language of North Macedonia. Estimates of the number of native and second language speakers of Macedonian varies; the number of native speakers in the country ranges from 1,344,815 according to the 2002 census in North Macedonia to 1,476,500 per linguistic database Ethnologue in 2016. Estimates of the total number of speakers in the world include 3.5 million people. Macedonian is studied and spoken as a second language by all ethnic minorities in the country.
Outside of the country, Macedonian is spoken as a native language by migrant communities throughout the Balkan Peninsula, predominantly by Macedonians who live in the geographical region of Macedonia and post-Yugoslav countries. The actual number of Macedonian native and second language speakers in the region of Macedonia is difficult to establish due to political policies of Greece, Bulgaria and Albania. Several Macedonian dialects are also considered dialects of the Serbian or Bulgarian language, which further hinders establishing the number of native speakers of Macedonian.
Macedonian is also spoken in continental Europe, predominantly in countries of Western and Northern Europe. Other speakers can also be found in the rest of the world, predominantly Australia, Canada and the United States. A 1964 estimate of the emigrant population put the number of Macedonian speakers outside the Balkans at approximately 580,000 people.[1]