Which country has the highest number of different languages within its borders?

Tiny Papua New Guinea is all of 462,840 square kilometres in size, about as big as the state of California. Despite its small size, it is the most linguistically diverse country on the planet. According to recent data, 841 different languages are listed for the country, although 11 of these have no known living speakers.

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76 Comments

Cindie J. Gonzales

Obviously, they've never walked through a Target in California.

Bill Coe

Jack Gannon Jr., Perhaps, you could learn to read and write in your own language before you put down other people. There/they're. Your/you're. Im/I'm. And, if you look on the left side of your keyboard, you will see a key that says "Caps Lock". You may want to learn how to use that.

Lf Resident

"Them"? Jack Gannon, when your ancestors came here, did they speak English? I doubt that. Most likely, with the name 'Gannon' they have a French ancestry and emigrated to Canada, spoke French, and then emigrated to the US. etc. etc.......and here YOU are today....an American.

Noel Dsouza

India has 22 official languages. According to Census of India, the total number of mother tongues spoken in India is 1652. However, only around 150 languageshave a sizable speaking population. The Indian census of 1961 recognised 1,652 different languages in India (including languages not native to the subcontinent).

blawrence

Jack Gannon Jr., im sure Native Americans could say the same about whites correct?

Jim Hubbard

Jack Gannon Jr., after reading your comment, I'm not sure you know what "our" language is.

Bill Coe

John Sandherr, 250 is a little less than 841, don't you think?

Jim Hubbard

It would probably be helpful for those disputing the correct answer to go the link provided in the explanation and find the country you believe should be the "correct" one to see where that country ranks. As a side note, someone who speaks a non-native language traveling to another country does not count toward the languages spoken in that country. We're discussing residents.

Janet Kay Julien

Were ALL the Native American languages included in that count?

Joann Peele

True Americans all speak many many languages

Howard Groopman

It would be just my luck to know 840 of those languages, then have a native ask me something in the one I didn't know.

Lynne Zeman

I thought Papua New Guinea would have a relatively low population, but I looked it up and in 2018 the population was more than 8,400,000.

Evelyn Bauc Hope Fairgrieve

Not achanceofthisbeing right

Christopher J Voce

Obviously never walked through Victoria Market in Melbourne, or Dalston High Street in East London !!

Joel Mercier

Cindie J. Gonzales, or walmart in Malton

Cottec

Got it.

Corey Taylor

Cindie J. Gonzales, you need a Target for that? You can walk down any street in L.A. and learn about 50 different languages, including liberal gibberish!

Terry Clark

Although I answered correctly, had difficulty deciding as the question is not very well worded. I had to decide if they were asking about diversity of languages spoken or number of indigenous languages spoken, decided it meant the 2nd interpretation therefore answered correctly.