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Top 10 countries that speak the most languages

by Akash Biswas
countries that speak the most languages

In most countries of the world, one or two dominant languages are spoken, but in Papua New Guinea over 840 languages are spoken. Only 13% of the country’s people live in cities, and the rest live in remote rural locations, sometimes on small, remote islands or in tribal villages with not one or two languages but a rich variety of languages, making it the most linguistically diverse country in the world.

According to Visual Capitalist, most of the 840 living languages in Papua New Guinea are indigenous and spoken in small pockets of the country. There are approximately 23 languages spoken in the country with more than 20,000 native speakers, and the remaining languages are spoken by statistically smaller communities and groups.

Among the countries that speak the most languages are Papua New Guinea in first place, Indonesia in second place, Nigeria in third place, India in fourth place, China in fifth place, Mexico in sixth place, Cameroon in seventh place, the United States in eighth place, Australia in ninth place, and Brazil in tenth place. The list was published by Visual Capitalist.

Countries that speak the most languages

RankCountryLanguages
1Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬840
2Indonesia 🇮🇩710
3Nigeria 🇳🇬530
4India 🇮🇳453
5China 🇨🇳306
6Mexico 🇲🇽293
7Cameroon 🇨🇲279
8United States 🇺🇸236
9Australia 🇦🇺224
10Brazil 🇧🇷222

Second place is Indonesia, with 710 living languages spoken across the archipelago. Javanese (Jawa) is the most spoken language in the country.

Nigeria has 530 living languages, the first on the African continent, ranking third in the world.

After Nigeria, India has 453 living languages in fourth place. The second most populous country has different languages spoken in different states, with Hindi being the most widely spoken national language.

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