Its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and opera. Italian is the main working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 69 million native speakers (13% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 16 million EU citizens (3%).
Italian is a major European language, being one of the official languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe. Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia. It used to have official status in Albania, Malta and Monaco, where it is still widely spoken, as well as in former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa regions where it plays a significant role in various sectors. Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City and western Istria (in Slovenia and Croatia). Italian is by most measures, together with the Sardinian language, the closest tongue to vulgar Latin of the Romance languages.