People & Culture
Luxembourg is the least populated country in the European Union, with only 465,000 inhabitants. It is also the 20th smallest of the 194 independent countries in the world.
Luxembourgish, a Franconian dialect of High German, is the mother tongue of nearly all Luxembourgers. In spite of that, most official (written) business is carried out in French, whereas German is the first language taught in school and used in the media.
As of 2006, there were 181,000 immigrants in Luxembourg, accounting for 39.6% of the total population. 15% of the country's inhabitants (over 1/3 of all immigrants) are of Portuguese origin.
Luxembourg has won five times the Eurovision Song Contest (in 1961, 1965, 1972, 1973 and 1983), a feat only surpassed by Ireland.
