CurrentNewsBD.com

Category: Language Related Info

News Headings

How many languages are spoken in the world?
Countries with the greatest number of languages
Languages of Asia
Different Languages of Bangladesh

Jan 19, 2009
Source: Ethnologue.com

Countries with the greatest number of languages

Most countries in the world have more than one spoken language. With 311 languages, the United States is the fifth most linguistically diverse country in the world. Its diversity comes from both indigenous and immigrant sources: the 311 languages spoken in the United States are divided between 162 indigenous and 149 immigrant languages. On the other hand, Papua New Guinea's 820 languages are all indigenous.

The table below lists countries with over 50 different languages. Click on the name of the country to get a listing of the languages spoken in it.

Country	Number of languages
Papua New Guinea	820
Indonesia	742
Nigeria	516
India	427
U.S.A.	311
Mexico	297
Cameroon	280
Australia	275
China	241
Democratic Republic of the Congo	216
Brazil	200
Philippines	180
Malaysia	147
Canada	145
Sudan	134
Chad	133
Russia	129
Tanzania	128
Nepal	125
Vanuatu	115
Myanmar	113
Vietnam	104
Côte d'Ivoire	92
Laos	86
Ethiopia	86
Ghana	83
Colombia	83
Thailand	83
Central African Republic	79
Pakistan	77
Burkina Faso	69
Congo	66
France	66
Kenya	64
Benin	55
Mali	54
Afghanistan	51

A diversity index, or the ratio between the number of languages and the population of a country, places Papua New Guinea (820 languages spoken by 5.4 million people) in first place, followed by Vanuatu (115 languages spoken by 120,000 people) in second place.

Click here to find out more about the number of languages spoken in all the countries of the world.

Advertisements