The Ten Most Multilingual Countries in the World and What That Means to Us

When talking about what are the most spoken languages in the world, it’s important to distinguish between native speakers and total numbers of speakers. China is way out in front in the former category, followed (way behind) by Spanish and then English. But, on the other hand, more people in the world speak some English than any other language, just slightly more than Mandarin and more than twice as many as Hindi speakers.

For more information on native speaker rankings, you can check out this article.

However, what concerns us here is a more exotic question: which countries are the most multilingual, that is, have the most languages spoken by their citizens. This question may be a useful one for a translator or translation company seeking business development opportunities as well as companies seeking to market to these countries.

Naturally, there’s a rational market for translating one major language to another. There will always be a demand for Chinese translation services, and an abundant supply of translators from Chinese to English. But the status of smaller “minority” languages are also fascinating, going beyond supply and demand. It’s essential knowledge, important to businesspeople, scholars, linguists, ethnologists and travelers to these countries.

A Continental View of Language Diversity: Asia and Europe Dominate

How many languages are spoken in the world? There are, according to Ethnologue, 7111 living languages spoken worldwide. However, 40% of those are in danger of dying out in the next generations with an average of less than 1000 speakers each. The 1313 languages spoken on Pacific islands account for 18.5% of the world’s total, but only 7 million people speak them.

Asia leads the way with 32% (2294). Africa is a close second at 30% (2144). The Americas have 15% of languages (1061) but just over 50 million speakers of indigenous languages originated there. Europe has but 287 languages spoken, just 4% of the total.

In sum, nearly 4 billion speak Asian languages and 1.72 billion speak European languages. 5.7 billion people speak languages which originated in Europe or Asia.

So, without further ado, let’s get into our Top 10 countdown. We include not just established or indigenous languages, but the languages of immigrants too. The world keeps turning!

The Translation and Localization Top 10 Countdown

#10. Brazil. 228 languages are spoken in Brazil. Portuguese, the official language, is spoken by 99% of the country’s population, 205 million in all. Brazilian Portuguese incorporates traces of Amerindian and African languages from slavery’s legacy. But before the arrival of Portuguese colonists, more than 1000 indigenous languages were spoken in Brazil. Between 150 -180 languages are actively spoken today, but few of these have a sizable speaking population, believed to be less than 10 million in all.

#9. Cameroon. 275 languages are spoken in this small West African country. These include 55 Afro-Asiatic languages, two Nilo-Saharan languages, four Ubangian languages, and 169 Niger–Congo languages, most of which are Bantu in origin. The country’s official languages are French and English. Though the country aspires to bilingualism, few citizens speak both.

#8. Mexico. More than 292 languages are spoken here, including 68 indigenous ones. More than 130 of these are endangered. Over 7 million Mexicans speak such languages, though this represents just 6% of indigenous peoples. Aside from dominant Spanish, which is not recognized as the nation’s official language, the most spoken languages are Nahuatl (1.7 million), Maya (850,000) and Mixtec (500,000).

#7. China. There are about 305 languages in use in China. Dominant Mandarin, the most-spoken native language in the world, with nearly a billion Chinese citizens speaking it natively, is spoken by 75% of the population. Cantonese is also an official language, and there are also many regional languages with hundreds of millions of speakers, notable among Wu and Fuzhou.

#6. Australia. There are 319 languages spoken here. 73% speak only English, the de facto national language since European settlement. The next most common languages spoken at home are Mandarin (2.5%), Arabic (1.4%), and Cantonese, followed by Vietnamese (1.2%), Italian (1.2%) and Greek (1.0%). Over 250 Indigenous Australian languages existed at the time of first European contact, but under 20 are in daily use by all age groups, with 110 others spoken only by older people. Speakers of indigenous languages total only in the tens of thousands.

#5. United States. There are 335 languages spoken in the US. American English is the de facto national language, spoken by 239 million (2017), but more than 42 million resident speak Spanish as a mother tongue. Chinese is a distant 3rd, with Tagalog and Vietnamese rounding out the top 5. 176 languages, spoken by Native Americans are indigenous to the area, but this includes some that have since become extinct.

#4. India. There were 1652 languages spoken in India, according to its 1961 census. Today, there are just 453, only around 150 of which today have a sizable speaking population. There are 22 major languages in India, written in 13 different scripts, with over 720 dialects. The country’s official languages are Hindi (420 million) and English.

#3. Nigeria. 524 languages are spoken in this West African nation. English is the official language, but Hausa is primarily spoken in northern states. Pidgin, a mixture of English with other languages, is commonly spoken as a second language of Nigeria. Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, and Creole are widely spoken.

#2. Indonesia. 710 languages are spoken in this archipelago nation. Most belong to the Austronesia language family, with over 270 Papuan languages are spoken in eastern Indonesia. The official language is (Bahasa) Indonesian, a form of Malay, which serves as the lingua franca of the nation and the language of commerce and diplomacy. Javanese, Sundanese and Minangkabau are popular regional languages.

#1. Papua New Guinea. 840 languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea, most by various tribal groups. The country’s leaders have declared it to be the most linguistically diverse on earth, and they appear to be correct. Official languages are Tok Pisin, English, Hiri Motu and, most recently, PNG sign language.

Where’s the Opportunity for Translation Companies?

Translation and localization companies are businesses, and therefore they tend to go for the “low-hanging fruit” – easier to reach target markets. Still, with the long tail of the Internet enabling access to most of the earth’s population, it may be tempting to go after secondary languages in niche markets. But which make sense to go after?

Naturally, if you are a translation company, these questions are critical. Professional translation services aim for coverage, especially in business translation. Translation services are in fierce competition and they measure and promote themselves by the number of languages, and language pairs, that they support. What makes sense is to find – via the web – the translation and localization agencies that cover the niche linguistic markets that interest you. If they’re not listed, simply inquire.

In addition, localization services are in high demand, especially for globalizing digital content. Each time a company expands to a new market, it must produce localized content. Language translation is the key component of localization but localizing also means adapting number and date/time formats, measurement and currency, as well as paying her to cultural and social preference and nuances.

Linguistic Access to 99% of the Human Race is Now in the Palm of our Hands

Smartphones have brought the languages of the world to our senses. While Google Translate supports 100 languages or so, that covers about 99% of the spoken languages of the world. And the beauty is that it’s not just dry text but two-way simultaneous voice translation, camera and image translation and so much more.

The universal translation device of science fiction is now a fact and a tool for travelers and businesspeople. While making 99% of our fellow humans translatable is a practical reality, the 7000 additional languages simply await the efforts of linguists and ethnologists and everyday folk that aim to preserve, promote and practice them.

Onward!