Number of languages spoken in Africa 2022, by country

As of 2022, there were over 2,000 living languages in Africa. With 520 languages, Nigeria accounted for around a fourth of the total languages spoken in Africa. Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo followed, each with over 200 living languages.

Africa's linguistic diversity

Africa boasted a repertoire of more than 2,000 living languages as of 2021. The continent had more than 900 classified as vigorous due to their widespread usage in face-to-face communication across all age groups. A regional perspective on the matter revealed that East Africa was Africa's most linguistically diverse region.

Embracing diversity: Africans welcome ethnic diversity in neighbors

In terms of cultural diversity, in 2021, the Republic of Chad held the title of being Africa's and the world's most culturally diverse nation. It obtained a cultural diversity index score of 0.85, with Cameroon and Nigeria following closely behind, scoring 0.84 and 0.83, respectively. The index measures diversity on a scale from zero to one, where one signifies the highest diversity level, while zero indicates the lowest level. Moreover, a survey conducted between 2019 and 2021 showed that Africans would be happy to have neighbors of different ethnicity.