#List of monolingual countries full#

It is interesting to note that only 36% of native French speakers live in Europe, a powerful indication that while French is indeed a European language, its future is global and its status is impacted by the same global forces that have led to the rise of English. Just as English benefited from the synergy of multiple forces in the 20th century, French may benefit from the synergistic effect of a globalized francophone culture in the 21st century.French is predicted to become the most widely spoken mother tongue in Europe by 2025 and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the world by 2050. Learn more in: Language Endangerment in Africa 6. However, vertical multilingualism is present even in these countries as social services require English and/or French. Lesotho and Rwanda are such examples, where Sotho and Rwandan are predominantly used, respectively. French is Europe’s second most widely spoken mother tongue with over 77 million speakers, after Germany (around 100 million), but ahead of English (around 61 million). Monolingual societies are relatively rare in the world, especially in Africa.French is unusual in that it often exists alongside other languages in multilingual contexts.As a result of population growth, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie estimates that the number of French speakers will rise to over 700 million by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa.

French is one of the very few languages spoken all over the world, ranked the sixth most widely spoken language after Mandarin Chinese (over a billion speakers), English, Hindi, Spanish and Arabic. There are currently over 300 million French speakers worldwide.

This total is then broken down into indigenous (ind.) and immigrant (imm.) languages. ‘Total’ shows the overall number of languages spoken as a first language in the country.

#List of monolingual countries full#

The full ranking of the world’s most multilingual countries is below. World’s most multilingual countries – ranked Interestingly, Cuba has only five languages, explained in part by the fact that it’s an island nation but perhaps also by its history of political isolation. It’s not surprising that small countries and islands comprise the rest of the bottom five: British Indian Ocean Territory has one language while Vatican State, Tokelau and San Marino among others have only two. This Asian country is notoriously insular with vice-like controls on press, freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom of association. NORTH KOREA – which is predictable once you know the answer. Pambudi Yoga Perdana/Shutterstock Indonesia is the 2nd most multilingual countryĬan you guess which country is the least multilingual? It has only one language within its borders and therefore zero chance that two randomly selected people will have different mother tongues. The country has a relatively small population of seven million, which means it is incredibly likely that two randomly selected people will have different mother tongues. Thus, making use of the Word List tool in the program AntConc (Anthony. This diversity is largely explained by the country’s topography: deep valleys and unnavigable terrain separated hundreds of different clans for centuries, giving rise to distinct languages and customs. century then, large waves of Spanish speakers entered the country as a result of. Papua New Guinea takes the top spot with an overwhelming 839 languages. the number of people who speak more than one language), rather the world’s most multilingual countries – a count of the number of languages used as a first language in the country. It’s important to note that the ranking isn’t a measure of multilingualism on a personal level (i.e. Kaijankoski CC BY-SA 2.0 The world’s most multilingual countries are not necessarily crowded There are 56 languages spoken across its lands meaning if we chose to, we could likely learn a new language from someone who speaks a different one.Įthnologue, the premier authority on languages, has ranked the world’s most multilingual countries based on the number of living languages spoken within its borders. This is a shame because on a country level, the UK has a very healthy degree of multilingualism. A few years of infrequent lessons from beleaguered GCSE teachers aren’t nearly enough to instil multilingualism on a personal level. We take a look at the world’s most multilingual countries, from Papua New Guinea with over 800 languages to the one country with only a single languageĪs guardians of the world’s lingua franca, we English have little incentive for learning a second language.