Native speakers of German (chiefly Swiss German, though Standard German is also understood) number about 4.6 million (64%)for French (mostly Swiss French, but including some Arpitan dialects) they number 1.5 million (20%); for Italian (mostly Swiss Italian, but including Lombard dialects), 500,000 (6.5%); and for Romansch, 35,000 (0.5%).[4]
The German region (Deutschschweiz) is roughly in the east, north and center the French part (la Romandie) in the west and the Italian area (Svizzera italiana) in the south. There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population inGraubünden in the east. The cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual; Graubünden is officially trilingual