If you live in the United States , you ’re in all likelihood used to the idea of ethnic variety — which is look at to be one the defining features of the state — but how does the U.S. stack up against other countries in the humanity in terms of diversity ?
You may be surprised to learn that it does n’t appear in our tilt of most divers countries . translate on to learn about themost divers countryin the human race , and who else is in the top 10 .
10 Most Diverse Countries in the World
The following list habituate information from academic research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research ( NBER ) , which invent a term call " fractionalization " to measure ethnic diverseness ( more on that after the list ) .
1. Uganda (93.02%)
Uganda tops the listing of the most diverse country in the world . With a population of over 49 million , Uganda , located in Central Africa , is home to a strikingly diverse universe , with a wide-cut array of different ethnic group and languages verbalise .
2. Liberia (90.84%)
Liberia , located on the West African seashore , is the secondly - most ethnically diverse land in the world . With a population of around 5.5 million , it is home base to at least 20 dissimilar ethnic radical , and over 20 different languages spoken .
3. Madagascar (87.91%)
An island land off the southeast coast ofAfrica , Madagascar has long been noted for its ecologic cornucopia . It ’s also one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the universe , home to about 32 million people who belong to to a rich tapestry of different ethnicities .
4. DR Congo (87.47%) (tie)
Located in Central Africa , the Democratic Republic of the Congo — often simply called DR Congo — is a great , populous country of 109 million . Highly diverse , it has ( like many African countries ) stick out from colonialism , economic exploitation and political unstableness .
4. Republic of the Congo (87.47%) (tie)
sit down across the molding from the similarly named DR Congo is the Republic of the Congo , which is just as diverse but significantly small in population , at just over 6 million .
6. Cameroon (86.35%)
Also in Central Africa , the Republic of Cameroon is another hot spot for cultural multifariousness . With a population of nearly 31 million people , it is dwelling to around 250 indigenous African tribe , with nearly as many unlike language mouth ( over 200 have been documented ) .
7. Chad (86.2%)
With nearly 20 million mass , Chad is a big and incredibly various area . Straddling the realm of North and Central Africa , it is dwelling house to over 100 different ethnic populations .
Like many other first appearance on this list , it is also one of the most religiously diverse commonwealth , with Islam and Christianity being practiced alongside a all-encompassing array of local , Indigenous spiritual tradition .
8. Kenya (85.88%)
Kenya is a populous res publica in East Africa . Some of it borders the Indian Ocean , and it is have it away for a keen deal of ecological , geographical and ethnic variety . The country ’s universe as of 2024 is judge at over 52 million .
As in other state on this list , diversity is increased by the number of extraneous occupant live in the country .
9. Nigeria (85.05%)
Nigeria , with a population of over 230 million , is the most populous country in Africa . It is also one of the most divers , with 500 dissimilar nomenclature talk by the great unwashed from over 250 ethnic groups . Nigeria is locate in West Africa .
10. Central African Republic (82.95%)
With a universe of over 5 million hoi polloi , the Central African Republic is one of the comparatively small countries on this list . It remains very various , with over 80 different heathen grouping and many lyric spoken — include Sango , a creole consisting of different autochthonous speech communication .
How Is Diversity Measured?
As mentioned above , the variety rankings in this list muse a mensuration known as " fractionalization " ( also sometimes referred to as " ethnic fractionalization . " )
In simple terms , this is a statistical bar to calculate the probability that two randomly selected people will be from unlike grouping . That could cite to religion , ethnicity or spoken linguistic communication ; the idea is that these are all valid measure of diversity .
To get the rude data , the researchers wait at how many of those unlike categories could be heel in a land , and then did some numbers crunching , get at a account between 0 and 1 , with 1 being highest potential diversity number and 0 being the lowest .
Is Ethnic Diversity the Same as Racial Diversity?
Part of the NEBR ’s effort to create this methodology has to do with the problems that arise from theconcept of airstream . Although it ’s a common idea , the estimate of dissimilar races has been define variously over the years , and so it ’s of small use to modernistic science .
Ethnic diversityis view as by most ethnographers as being a superior measurement , since it encompass features that are more readily identifiable , such as ethnical customs , family unit lineage , religious belief and linguistic communication .
That helps explain why Africa is so well - represented on this listing ( as you plausibly noticed , these are all African countries ) .
While other definitions of backwash would bear that the continent of Africa was fairly low in multifariousness , if you in reality front at the different heathenish groups in many of these nations , they are incredibly wide-ranging population , with fertile ethnical diversity .
An Illuminating Counterexample
To aid illustrate the idea of fractionalization , take the exemplar of Brazil . Old - fashioned ideas of racial variety would hold Brazil as passably various : It has autochthonous groups , the posterity of enslaved African , and many people of European decline .
Colonized by the Portuguese in the early 16th C , Portuguese has been spoken more and more over the centuries , until the gunpoint where it is commonplace , with over98 percent of residentsspeaking the nomenclature fluently .
This intend that Brazil ’s overall diversity , by the measures we ’re using here , is relatively low ( it in reality scores as one of the least various body politic ) , due to a widely share oral communication , as well as ethnical tradition .
So , is Africa full of " racially various countries ? " If we ’re using antiquated ideas of subspecies , no , but if we ’re using update measures , it is by far the most diverse continent in the world .
