The African country where a ridiculous 520 languages are spoken – list of top countries

Every year nine languages cease to be spoken globally, that’s one in every 40 days, according to the The Language Conservancy.

However, one country has kept 520 languages alive, which accounts for around a quarter of the total languages spoken in .

The continent boasts more than 2,000 , of which 900 were classified as “vigorous”, which means they are stable due to their widespread usage in face-to-face communication across all ages.

However is the most linguistically diverse of them all with a staggering 520 languages, almost 300 more languages than the next in line, according to Statista in 2021. 

The official tongue is English, but it is spoken less frequently in rural areas, and major languages spoken include Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulfulde, Ibibio, Kanuri, and Tiv.

After Nigeria, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo followed, each with over 200 living languages, while East Africa was the continent’s

About 44% of worldwide languages are endangered according to Ethnologue, often with fewer than 1,000 users remaining, which happens when its users begin to pass on a more dominant language to the children in the community.

Africa has around 428 endangered languages, many of which are clustered around the equator, while the region of Oceania has the largest density, with roughly 733 at risk.

According to the The Language Conservancy, 61% of languages spoken as a first language worldwide in 1795 are now condemned or extinct, and at a continued rate more than half of them could become extinct over the next 100 years.

It happens most often when small linguistic communities have only a couple hundred people speaking the language, often in rural areas.

However, there are some success stories, such Maori in New Zealand. After facing a steep decline, a national language revival, which included recognising it as an official language in settings such as court, has helped increased the number of fluent speakers.

Ethnologue has a 12 category classification system for a language’s state of health, which is simplified into three broader categories.

Endangered languages are defined as children not being taught or using the language; Stable languages are used in the home and community; and Institutional is when a language is used beyond the community across institutions.

The 10 top countries in Africa with the most living languages, according to Statista: 

1. Nigeria – 520
2. Cameroon – 227
3. Democratic Republic of the Congo – 214
4. Chad – 129
5. Tanzania – 128
6. Ethiopia – 92
7. Cote d’Ivoire – 88
8. Ghana – 83
9. Sudan – 75
10. South Sudan – 73