The country with a staggering 37 official languages – even though some are extinct

Most countries in the world have one , spoken by the entire population.

Some might even have two, such as , where Finnish and Swedish are spoken by the population.

In , there are also two official languages – English and French, while boasts three – French, Dutch and German.

However, there is one country counting an incredible 37 official languages – even though some are extinct.

Bolivia has 36 indigenous languages along with Spanish, which is spoken by the majority.

The country’s 2009 constitution says that all the indigenous languages are official – listing 36, of which some are no longer spoken.

The main language of is of course Spanish, spoken by 70 percent of the population.

The most prominent indigenous languages are Quechua (spoken by 18 percent of the people in Bolivia) and Aymara (used by 10 percent of locals).

Spanish and Quechua are spoken primarily in the Andes Region, while Aymara is mainly used in the Altiplano around .

And there are more languages spoken in Bolivia by small segments of the population, although these are not recognised as being official.

Bolivia has a small Mennonite community – originally of Friesian, Flemish and North German descent. 

They speak a dialect known as Plautdietsch, but use standard (or Hochdeutsch) in writing and formal communication.

There are some 160,000 German speakers, almost half of whom live in Santa Cruz.

Given Bolivia borders Brazil, then it should come as no surprise that Portuguese is also spoken by some – namely those who live near the border.

Around 0.2 percent of Bolivians say they speak Portuguese as their first language.

Literacy rates in Bolivia are high, with 92 percent of the population able to read and write, according to a 2012 census.