Ranked: Countries With the Most and Least Languages

Ranked: Countries With the Most and Least Languages

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Why do some countries have hundreds of living languages while others have only a handful?

Using data from the Summer Institute of Linguistics International via Our World in Data, this graphic ranks the countries with the most and fewest living languages, illustrating the remarkable range of linguistic diversity around the world.

From Papua New Guinea’s 843 languages, the highest in the world, to North Korea’s two, the data highlights how geography, migration, isolation, and history have influenced the languages spoken across nations.

The Countries With the Most Living Languages

Although it is home to fewer than 12 million people, Papua New Guinea has extraordinary linguistic diversity. Its rugged terrain, hundreds of islands, and isolated communities have helped preserve nearly twice as many languages as India, despite having less than 1% of its population.

Indonesia, an archipelago of roughly 17,000 islands, ranks second with 709 living languages, followed by Nigeria, India, and China. A living language is one with at least one native speaker.

Rank	Country	Number of Living Languages 2025	Region
1	Papua New Guinea	843	Oceania
2	Indonesia	709	Asia
3	Nigeria	530	Africa
4	India	454	Asia
5	China	309	Asia
6	Mexico	296	Americas
7	Cameroon	280	Africa
8	United States	239	Americas
9	Australia	225	Oceania
10	Brazil	222	Americas
11	DR Congo	211	Africa
12	Philippines	184	Asia
13	Malaysia	133	Asia
14	Chad	129	Africa
15	Tanzania	127	Africa
16	Myanmar	125	Asia
17	Nepal	123	Asia
18	Russia	119	Europe
19	Vietnam	111	Asia
20	Canada	101	Americas
21	Peru	95	Americas
22	Ethiopia	92	Africa
23	Colombia	89	Americas
24	Côte d’Ivoire	88	Africa
25	Laos	88	Asia
26	Ghana	83	Africa

With 239 living languages, the United States ranks eighth globally. Most are Indigenous languages, many of which are endangered after centuries of displacement and assimilation. Nearly 50 have already disappeared.

Overall, only 20 countries are home to at least 100 living languages. Together, they account for a remarkable share of the world’s linguistic heritage, spanning nearly every inhabited continent.

Why Some Countries Have So Few

Following the division of the Korean Peninsula after World War II, North Korea became one of the world’s most isolated societies. Today, it has just two living languages, Korean and Korean Sign Language, the fewest of any country.

Country	Number of Living Languages 2025	Region
North Korea	2	Asia
Cuba	3	Americas
Haiti	4	Americas
Jamaica	4	Americas
New Zealand	4	Oceania
Puerto Rico	4	Americas
Burundi	5	Africa
Djibouti	5	Africa
Dominican Republic	5	Americas
Eswatini	5	Africa
Lesotho	5	Africa
Qatar	5	Asia
South Korea	5	Asia
Bahrain	6	Asia
El Salvador	6	Americas
Kuwait	6	Asia
Rwanda	6	Africa
Tunisia	6	Africa
Uruguay	6	Americas
Belarus	7	Europe
Bosnia and Herzegovina	7	Europe
Denmark	7	Europe
Hong Kong	7	Asia
Mauritania	7	Africa
Sri Lanka	7	Asia
Trinidad and Tobago	7	Americas

Cuba and the Dominican Republic have relatively few living languages because Spanish became dominant after colonization, while Indigenous languages disappeared and later African linguistic influences were largely absorbed into Spanish.

Many countries with few living languages once had greater linguistic diversity. Over centuries, colonization, assimilation, and the decline of Indigenous languages left them with only a small number of native languages that continue to be spoken today.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on America’s most spoken languages after English and Spanish.

• Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-countries-with-the-most-and-least-languages/