Top 10 countries with most spoken languages in the world: Papua New Guinea at No. 1, India ranked 4th

2 min readJun 16, 2026 05:53 PM IST

Top 10 Countries with most spoken languages in the world: Papua New Guinea steals the #1 spot, India ranked 4th

Top 10 countries that speak the most languages: Ethnologue, a reference catalog that documents all of the world’s known living languages, released its yearly report on top 10 countries with most spoken languages in the world.

Language diversity around the world has been distributed differently over time. The vast linguistic background, spread around the world is currently home to 7,170 living languages that reflect the rich history, cultural evolution, and geographical isolation of human communities.

From The Archives: Top 10 most widely spoken languages in the world; Indian languages in list

Geographically, Asia and Africa harbour the highest density of unique vernaculars, with Papua New Guinea standing as the ultimate global linguistic epicentre, boasting over 840 distinct languages spoken across its rugged terrain. India was ranked at No.4 in the Top 10 list with total number of languages recorded to be 453. The second and third spot have been given to Indonesia and Nigeria, respectively. Rank 5 and 6 have been secured by United States of America and Australia, pointing out to the diversity increase due to immigration. Rank 7, 8, 9 and 10 have been acquired by China, Mexico, Cameroon and Brazil respectively.

However, this vibrant heritage faces an unprecedented crisis. Over 3,000 languages are currently classified as endangered. To preserve these languages before they disappear, communities and technology experts are creating digital archives, language apps, and educational programs to help younger generations learn and keep them alive.

Rank

Country

Number of Languages

Papua New Guinea

840

Indonesia

718

Nigeria

524

India

453

United States