Charts / Demographics
Nigeria leads Africa with 520 living languages
No country on Earth is more linguistically crowded than Nigeria, home to more than 500 living languages.
Updated 2026 · Data year 2025
Figure 1
No country on Earth is more linguistically crowded than Nigeria, home to more than 500 living languages.
520
Nigeria · langs
Source: Ethnologue (SIL International), SIL International / Glottolog · 2025 · Living-language counts per Ethnologue, 28th edition (2025). Selected high-diversity African countries; counts cover indigenous and non-indigenous living languages.
Nigeria is home to 520 living languages, the most of any African country and among the highest counts in the world [S1]. Cameroon follows with 280 and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with 214, while Tanzania has 128 [S2]. The counts thin out quickly below the leaders: Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana list 81 living languages each and Kenya 67, a fraction of Nigeria's total [S2].
Takeaways
- Nigeria lists 520 living languages, Africa's highest and among the most of any nation.
- Cameroon (280) and DR Congo (214) rank next among the countries confirmed here.
- Tanzania has 128 living languages; Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana 81 each.
- Counts are from Ethnologue's 28th edition, published in 2025.
Sources
- TIER A Ethnologue (SIL International), Nigeria country profile (2025). https://www.ethnologue.com/country/NG/
520 living languages listed for Nigeria (Ethnologue 28th edition). - TIER A Ethnologue (SIL International), Country profiles, 28th edition (2025). https://www.ethnologue.com/country/CM/
Living-language counts read from Ethnologue 28th-edition country pages: Cameroon 280; DR Congo 214 (208 indigenous + 6 non-indigenous); Tanzania 128 (120 indigenous + 8 non-indigenous); Côte d'Ivoire 81; Ghana 81; Kenya 67. - TIER A SIL International / Glottolog, Eberhard, Simons & Fennig (2025), Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 28th ed. (2025). https://glottolog.org/resource/reference/id/701778
Edition and year citation for the Ethnologue data used.