Top 10 Countries that Speak the Most Languages
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Many countries around the world have one or two languages translating mainly spoken by their people. There are however, a handful of countries worldwide that speak more than one language. These linguistically diverse nations have come about due to multiculturalism and globalisation, leading to some countries having a whopping 840 languages spoken in total (find out which ones later on).
In this post, we uncover the top 10 countries that speak the most languages as well as their internet penetration (according to data derived from sbs.com.au and internetworldstats.com):
In this post, we uncover the top 10 countries that speak the most languages as well as their internet penetration (according to data derived from sbs.com.au and internetworldstats.com):
10.Brazil
Brazil may have one of the world’s highest populations, but it does come last in the list of countries with the most languages spoken. Portuguese is the official and national language, however, aside from this, there are several other tongues used – a total of 228 in fact! The country’s minority languages include indigenous languages, such as Nheengatu, Italian, German and Japanese.
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Brazilian Portuguese (59.1%)
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Brazilian Portuguese (59.1%)
9. Australia
Australia has no official language. However, English is considered the de facto national language. Collectively, Australia has 260 spoken tongues, with Mandarin being the biggest non-English dialect used. Other languages spoken in Australia include Punjabi, Filipino/Tagalog, and Arabic.
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Mandarin (59.1%)
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Mandarin (59.1%)
8. Cameroon
Cameroon is home to 280 languages. Some have even gone as far to say that the country actually has around 600 languages. French and English are official tongues, however other languages make up the country’s linguistic diversity including Bafia, Bafut and Bakoko.
Top Languages & Internet Penetration: French (25.4%) & English (77.5%)
Top Languages & Internet Penetration: French (25.4%) & English (77.5%)
7. Mexico
Although Spanish is the most widespread language of Mexico, the nation has a complete number of 290 languages country-wide. In fact, the Mexican government recognizes 68 national languages – 63 of which are indigenous.
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Spanish (70.4%)
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Spanish (70.4%)
6. China
China may have the highest population around the world, but it stands at 6th place in this list of countries with the most languages. Standard Chinese is the official language in mainland China, and another language that has official status is Cantonese. In total however, China has a large 301 languages spoken.
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Mandarin (59.1%)
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Mandarin (59.1%)
5. United States
You’d be surprised to know that the USA actually has no official language. Although many assume that English is the official tongue in this nation, it is actually one of the 430 languages spoken. Spanish is included on that list, Chinese (and its varieties), French and Tagalog are just some of the common tongues used in the USA.
Top Language & Internet Penetration: English (77.5%)
Top Language & Internet Penetration: English (77.5%)
4. India
According to Babbel, the Indian language is “actually 22 separate official languages”. These include Bengali, Hindi, Maithili, Nepalese, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu, Assamese, Dogri, Kannada, Gujarati, Bodo, Manipur, Oriya, Marathi, Santali, Telugu, Punjabi, Sindhi, Malayalam, Konkani and Kashmiri. In total however, India has 453 languages.
234 million Indian language internet users (https://assets.kpmg/)
234 million Indian language internet users (https://assets.kpmg/)
3. Nigeria
There is a countless number of African languages in the world. Nigeria in particular though houses 527 languages overall. The official one spoken is English but Igbo is another popular one used in the country, spoken by more than 20 million people.
Top Language & Internet Penetration: English (77.5%)
Top Language & Internet Penetration: English (77.5%)
2. Indonesia
Indonesian is one of the most popular languages in the world (according to blog.busuu.com), however in its country are another 706 spoken tongues used by its civilians. Indeed, Indonesia has 707 distinct languages, most of which are indigenous.
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Indonesian (64.6%)
Top Language & Internet Penetration: Indonesian (64.6%)
1. Papua New Guinea
And so, the country with the most spoken languages in the world is officially Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea has an extravagant 840 languages spoken in its country. This island in the southwestern Pacific may only have a small population of just 8 million, but its number of languages are more than double the languages spoken in the whole of Europe.
Top Languages: Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, English
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