* Germany: This is the largest country where German is spoken as a first language, with about 78 million speakers.
* Austria: Around 8.9 million people in Austria speak German as their first language.
* Liechtenstein: This small principality has a population of about 40,000, nearly all of whom speak German as their first language.
* Switzerland: German is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, spoken by about 63% of the population.
Important Note: While German is spoken in Luxembourg and parts of Belgium and Italy, it is not the primary language in these countries.