Countries with the Most Languages Spoken Within Their Borders

About This Dataset

Countries ranked by the total number of distinct indigenous and native languages spoken within their territory according to Ethnologue and UNESCO data. Papua New Guinea is the world's most linguistically diverse nation, with approximately 840 distinct languages spoken by a population of under 10 million — averaging fewer than 12,000 speakers per language, reflecting centuries of geographic isolation among mountain communities.

Analysis

Papua New Guinea heads the table on 840, ahead of Indonesia (710) and Nigeria (516) in Native Languages Spoken. 590 separates the highest figure (840) from the lowest (250) in Native Languages Spoken. First and second are separated by 130, so the leader sits inside the field rather than apart from it. Places 3 to 8 are close together, spanning 516 to 250 Native Languages Spoken.

Source: Wikipedia

Key Findings

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Papua New Guinea leads in Native Languages Spoken with 840.

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Average Native Languages Spoken: 455 · median: 378.

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Gap: Papua New Guinea is 3.4× larger than Australia.

Countries with the Most Languages Spoken Within Their Borders

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Data Insights Below

Data Insights

Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart

Admin

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Data Points

8 categories · 1 year

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Top Value

840

Papua New Guinea

Native Languages Spoken · All Time

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Metrics

Native Languages Spoken

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Period

All Time

Single year snapshot

Methodology & source

Data source: Wikipedia
Coverage: 8 entities · 8 observations
Measure: Native Languages Spoken
Last updated: 6 September 2026
Compiled by: The ANYSTAT team, from the source above

How the figures are calculated

Values are shown as reported by the source. Nothing is rescaled, rebased or converted — the only changes are thousand separators and decimals shown to two places.
Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.