These Are The Countries That Have The Most Languages.

There are over 7000 languages spoken in the world today and over 190 countries. This begs the following question: which countries have the most languages? In this article, we rank the 20 countries that have the most languages as well as the percentage they represent in the overall number of languages in the world. See if your country made the list. If it didn’t, please add it in a comment and let the community know how many languages are spoken in your country.

1. Papua New Guinea

Number of languages: 820.
% of world languages: 11.86 %

2. Indonesia

Number of languages: 742.
% of world languages: 10.73 %

3. Nigeria

Number of languages: 516.
% of world languages: 7.47 %

4. India

Number of languages: 427.
% of world languages: 6.18 %

5. USA

Number of languages: 311.
% of world languages: 4.50 %

6. Mexico

Number of languages: 297.
% of world languages: 4.30 %

7. Cameroon

Number of languages: 280.
% of world languages: 4.05 %

8. Australia

Number of languages: 275.
% of world languages: 3.98 %

9. China

Number of languages: 241.
% of world languages: 3.49 %

10. Democratic Republic of Congo

Number of languages: 216.
% of world languages: 3.12 %

11. Brazil

Number of languages: 200.
% of world languages: 2.89 %

12. Philippines

Number of languages: 180.
% of world languages: 2.60 %

13. Malaysia

Number of languages: 147.
% of world languages: 2.13 %

14. Canada

Number of languages: 145.
% of world languages: 2.10 %

15. Sudan

Number of languages: 134.
% of world languages: 1.94 %

16. Chad

Number of languages: 132.
% of world languages: 1.92 %

17. Russia

Number of languages: 129.
% of world languages: 1.87 %

18. Tanzania

Number of languages: 128.
% of world languages: 1.85 %

19. Nepal

Number of languages: 125.
% of world languages: 1.81 %

20. Vanuatu

Number of languages: 115.
% of world languages: 1.66 %

Source:
Data source: Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (2005) & CIA World Fact Book.

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2 thoughts on “These Are The Countries That Have The Most Languages.”

  1. Heather

    How is this being counted? Official minority languages or just all languages that are actually spoken in the country, as in if my family and I move to Indonesia and speak our language with each other does Swedish count as a language spoken in Indonesia?

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