DIVERSITY - CULTURAL, LINGUISTIC AND BIOLOGICAL

[vekky]

There are more than 300 million indigenous people in the world
They live in every continent and speak more than 6000 languages
Sadly, only about 60 of these have more than 1/2 million speakers
over 150 million live in Asia
over 40 million live in South and Central America (Alderete 2005)

In terms of linguistic diversity, those countries that make the top 9 are:

PNG 850 languages
Indonesia* 670 languages
Nigeria 410 languages
India* 380 languages
Cameroon 270 languages
Australia* 250 languages
Mexico* 240 languages
Zaire* 210 languages
Brazil* 210 languages (Toledo 1994)

The countries with an asterisk are the world's top megadiverse countries: with rich biodiversity and number of species.