List of countries ranked by ethnic and cultural diversity level

This page contains lists of countries ranked by ethnic and cultural diversity level.

Methodology

The lists are commonly used in Economics literature to compare the levels of ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious fractionalization in different countries.^[1][2] Fractionalization measures are computing the probability that two randomly drawn individuals (from a country) are not from the same group (ethnic, religious, or whatever the criterion is). The two lists have been described by Alesina and Ferrara as follows:^[1]

"Fearon^[3] and Alesina et al.^[4] have compiled various measures of ethnic heterogeneity which try to tackle the fact that the difference amongst groups manifests itself in different ways in different places. The two classifications are constructed differently. Alesina et al.^[4] do not take a stand on what ethnicity (or language or religion) are more salient than others and adopt the country breakdown suggested by original sources, mainly the Encyclopedia Britannica. Fearon^[3] instead is trying to construct the ”right list” of ethnic groups which ”depends on what people in the country identify as the most socially relevant ethnic groupings”. This approach has the advantage of being closer to what the theory would want and the disadvantage of having to make judgement calls (or adopt others’ judgement calls) about what is the ”right list”."

List based on Fearon's analysis

In the Fearon list, cultural fractionalization is approximated by a measure of similarity between languages, varying from 1 = the population speaks two or more unrelated languages to 0 = the entire population speaks the same language.^[3] This index of cultural diversity is biased towards linguistic variations as opposed to genetic diversity and other variations.

Ethnic and Cultural diversity (2003)^[3]

Ethnic Diversity Rank	Country	Ethnic Fractionalization Index	Cultural Diversity Index
1	Papua New Guinea	1.000000	—
2	Tanzania	0.953000	0.564000
3	Democratic Republic of Congo	0.933000	0.628000
4	Uganda	0.930000	0.647000
5	Liberia	0.899000	0.644000
6	Cameroon	0.887000	0.733000
7	Togo	0.883000	0.602000
8	South Africa	0.880000	0.530000
9	Congo	0.878000	0.562000
10	Madagascar	0.861000	0.192000
11	Gabon	0.857000	0.382000
12	Kenya	0.852000	0.601000
13	Ghana	0.846000	0.388000
14	Malawi	0.829000	0.294000
15	Guinea-Bissau	0.818000	0.568000
16	Somalia	0.812000	0.290000
17	India	0.811000	0.667000
18	Nigeria	0.805000	0.660000
19	Yugoslavia (1943–1992)	0.801000	0.385000
20	Central African Republic	0.791000	0.511000
21	Ivory Coast	0.784000	0.557000
22	Lebanon	0.780000	0.195000
23	Chad	0.772000	0.727000
24	Indonesia	0.766000	0.522000
25	Mozambique	0.765000	0.285000
26	Gambia	0.764000	0.548000
27	Sierra Leone	0.764000	0.534000
28	Ethiopia	0.760000	0.562000
29	Angola	0.756000	0.242000
30	Mali	0.754000	0.590000
31	Afghanistan	0.751000	0.679000
32	Bolivia	0.743000	0.662000
33	United Arab Emirates	0.737000	0.650000
34	Senegal	0.727000	0.402000
35	Zambia	0.726000	0.189000
36	Namibia	0.724000	0.589000
37	USSR (1922–1991)	0.711000	0.596000
38	Sudan (1955–2011)	0.708000	0.698000
39	Kuwait	0.708000	0.540000
40	Burkina Faso	0.704000	0.354000
41	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.681000	0.146000
42	Kyrgyzstan	0.679000	0.624000
43	Nepal	0.677000	0.542000
44	Iran	0.669000	0.542000
45	Guinea	0.669000	0.490000
46	Kazakhstan	0.664000	0.620000
47	Colombia	0.656000	0.020000
48	Ecuador	0.655000	0.480000
49	Eritrea	0.647000	0.398000
50	Trinidad and Tobago	0.647000	0.380000
51	Peru	0.638000	0.506000
52	Niger	0.637000	0.600000
53	Mauritius	0.632000	0.448000
54	Mauritania	0.625000	0.272000
55	Benin	0.622000	0.400000
56	Guyana	0.620000	0.460000
57	Djibouti	0.606000	0.404000
58	Bhutan	0.605000	0.518000
59	Malaysia	0.596000	0.564000
60	Canada	0.596000	0.499000
61	Latvia	0.585000	0.441000
62	Syria	0.581000	0.235000
63	Switzerland	0.575000	0.418000
64	Yugoslavia (1918–1943)	0.575000	0.392000
65	Belgium	0.567000	0.462000
66	Fiji	0.566000	0.553000
67	Saudi Arabia	0.553000	0.413000
68	Bahrain	0.551000	0.460000
69	Iraq	0.549000	0.355000
70	Brazil	0.549000	0.020000
71	Mexico	0.542000	0.434000
72	Macedonia	0.535000	0.432000
73	Pakistan	0.532000	0.289000
74	Israel	0.526000	0.246000
75	Burma	0.522000	0.419000
76	Tajikistan	0.513000	0.492000
77	Estonia	0.511000	0.492000
78	Moldova	0.510000	0.401000
79	Jordan	0.509000	0.049000
80	Panama	0.507000	0.168000
81	Czechoslovakia (1918–1992)	0.505000	0.290000
82	Spain	0.502000	0.263000
83	Chile	0.497000	0.167000
84	Guatemala	0.493000	0.493000
85	United States	0.491000	0.271000
86	Georgia	0.490000	0.404000
87	Uzbekistan	0.485000	0.442000
88	Venezuela	0.483000	0.020000
89	Laos	0.481000	0.020000
90	Morocco	0.479000	0.360000
91	Oman	0.439000	0.404000
92	Thailand	0.431000	0.431000
93	Sri Lanka	0.428000	0.386000
94	Ukraine	0.419000	0.258000
95	Nicaragua	0.402000	0.095000
96	Turkmenistan	0.392000	0.328000
97	Singapore	0.388000	0.388000
98	Dominican Republic	0.387000	0.000000
99	Croatia	0.375000	0.185000
100	Belarus	0.372000	0.228000
101	Zimbabwe	0.366000	0.141000
102	New Zealand	0.363000	0.363000
103	Cyprus	0.359000	0.359000
104	Botswana	0.351000	0.161000
105	Lithuania	0.338000	0.259000
106	Russia	0.333000	0.311000
107	Slovakia	0.332000	0.293000
108	Burundi	0.328000	0.040000
109	United Kingdom	0.324000	0.184000
110	Czech Republic	0.322000	0.064000
111	Algeria	0.320000	0.237000
112	Romania	0.300000	0.265000
113	Turkey	0.299000	0.299000
114	Bulgaria	0.299000	0.250000
115	Swaziland	0.280000	0.143000
116	Taiwan	0.274000	0.169000
117	France	0.272000	0.251000
118	Mongolia	0.272000	0.227000
119	Lesotho	0.255000	0.057000
120	Argentina	0.255000	0.000000
121	Costa Rica	0.238000	0.078000
122	Vietnam	0.233000	0.210000
123	Slovenia	0.231000	0.170000
124	Bangladesh	0.223000	0.141000
125	Uruguay	0.218000	0.000000
126	Cuba	0.213000	0.020000
127	El Salvador	0.198000	0.180000
128	Sweden	0.189000	0.189000
129	Azerbaijan	0.188000	0.187000
130	Hungary	0.186000	0.185000
131	Cambodia	0.186000	0.150000
132	Honduras	0.185000	0.167000
133	Rwanda	0.180000	0.000000
134	Ireland	0.171000	0.157000
135	Jamaica	0.166000	0.027000
136	Egypt	0.164000	0.000000
137	Philippines	0.161000	0.116000
138	China	0.154000	0.154000
139	Libya	0.151000	0.127000
140	Australia	0.149000	0.147000
141	Armenia	0.134000	0.124000
142	Finland	0.132000	0.132000
143	Paraguay	0.132000	0.039000
144	Denmark	0.128000	0.128000
145	Austria	0.126000	0.100000
146	Norway	0.098000	0.098000
147	Albania	0.097000	0.082000
148	Germany	0.095000	0.090000
149	Haiti	0.095000	0.000000
150	Yemen	0.078000	0.078000
151	Netherlands	0.077000	0.077000
152	Greece	0.059000	0.050000
153	Poland	0.047000	0.041000
154	Portugal	0.040000	0.040000
155	Italy	0.040000	0.040000
156	Tunisia	0.039000	0.033000
157	Japan	0.012000	0.012000
158	South Korea	0.004000	0.004000
159	North Korea	0.002000	0.002000

List based on Alesina et al's analysis

This list is based on the analysis of Alesina and others,^[4] they develop fractionalization scores based on ethnicity, religious and linguistic data directly from the Encyclopædia Britannica lists. This list is biased by how the Britannica chooses to list ethnic groups, but it does not make a judgement call on which identities are more salient than others. According to Patsiurko et al.

"One of the most ambitious and widely used of these new [fractionalization] indices was created by Alesina et al. (2003) who developed measures of ethnic, linguistic and religious fractionalization in 190 countries using more current data from the Encyclopaedia Britannica Book of the Year (2001) ... and other sources. But again scholars offered criticisms (e.g. Fearon 2003; Posner 2004). First, there is inconsistency in terms of the years covered. For instance, the Encyclopaedia Britannica provides ethnicity data for only 124 of 190 countries, so Alesina had to resort to other sources for the rest. Hence, his ethnicity data covered years ranging from 1979 to 2001, depending on the country. Second, he offered one-time measures of fractionalization, thereby being unable to say anything about change over time"^[2]

Ethnic, Linguistic and Religious Fractionalization^[4]

Number	Country	Ethnic Fractionalization	Linguistic Fractionalization	Religious Fractionalization
1	Afghanistan	0.769300	0.614100	0.271700
2	Albania	0.220400	0.039900	0.471900
3	Algeria	0.339400	0.442700	0.009100
4	American Samoa	0.000000	0.173300	0.639500
5	Andorra	0.713900	0.684800	0.232600
6	Angola	0.786700	0.787000	0.627600
7	Antigua and Barbuda	0.164300	0.106300	0.684000
8	Argentina	0.255000	0.061800	0.223600
9	Armenia	0.127200	0.129100	0.457600
10	Aruba	0.000000	0.388900	0.410700
11	Australia	0.092900	0.334900	0.821100
12	Austria	0.106800	0.152200	0.414600
13	Azerbaijan	0.204700	0.205400	0.489900
14	Bahamas	0.422800	0.185500	0.681500
15	Bahrain	0.502100	0.434400	0.552800
16	Bangladesh	0.045400	0.092500	0.209000
17	Barbados	0.142300	0.092600	0.693400
18	Belarus	0.322200	0.466600	0.611600
19	Belgium	0.555400	0.540900	0.212700
20	Belize	0.701500	0.630300	0.581300
21	Benin	0.787200	0.790500	0.554400
22	Bermuda	0.000000	0.000000	0.711200
23	Bhutan	0.605000	0.605600	0.378700
24	Bolivia	0.739600	0.224000	0.208500
25	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0.630000	0.675100	0.685100
26	Botswana	0.410200	0.411000	0.598600
27	Brazil	0.540800	0.046800	0.605400
28	Brunei	0.541600	0.343800	0.440400
29	Bulgaria	0.402100	0.303100	0.596500
30	Burkina Faso	0.737700	0.722800	0.579800
31	Burundi	0.295100	0.297700	0.515800
32	Cambodia	0.210500	0.210400	0.096500
33	Cameroon	0.863500	0.889800	0.733800
34	Canada	0.712400	0.577200	0.695800
35	Cape Verde	0.417400	0.000000	0.076600
36	Central African Republic	0.829500	0.833400	0.791600
37	Chad	0.862000	0.863500	0.641100
38	Chile	0.186100	0.187100	0.384100
39	China	0.153800	0.132700	0.664300
40	Colombia	0.601400	0.019300	0.147800
41	Comoros	0.000000	0.010300	0.013700
42	Democratic Republic of Congo	0.874700	0.870500	0.702100
43	Congo	0.874700	0.687100	0.664200
44	Costa Rica	0.236800	0.048900	0.241000
45	Ivory Coast	0.820400	0.784200	0.755100
46	Croatia	0.369000	0.076300	0.444700
47	Cuba	0.590800	0.000000	0.505900
48	Cyprus	0.093900	0.396200	0.396200
49	Czech Republic	0.322200	0.323300	0.659100
50	Denmark	0.081900	0.104900	0.233300
51	Djibouti	0.796200	0.655800	0.043500
52	Dominica	0.200300	0.000000	0.462800
53	Dominican Republic	0.429400	0.039500	0.311800
54	East Timor	0.000000	0.526100	0.425400
55	Ecuador	0.655000	0.130800	0.141700
56	Egypt	0.183600	0.023700	0.197900
57	El Salvador	0.197800	0.000000	0.355900
58	Equatorial Guinea	0.346700	0.322000	0.119500
59	Eritrea	0.652400	0.653000	0.425300
60	Estonia	0.506200	0.494400	0.498500
61	Ethiopia	0.723500	0.807300	0.624900
62	Faroe Islands	0.000000	0.000000	0.314700
63	Fiji	0.547900	0.547900	0.568200
64	Finland	0.131500	0.141200	0.253100
65	France	0.103200	0.122100	0.402900
66	French Guiana	0.000000	0.115400	0.495900
67	French Polynesia	0.000000	0.607800	0.581300
68	Gabon	0.769000	0.782100	0.667400
69	Gambia, The	0.786400	0.807600	0.097000
70	Gaza Strip	0.000000	0.010400	0.034200
71	Georgia	0.492300	0.474900	0.654300
72	Germany	0.168200	0.164200	0.657100
73	Ghana	0.673300	0.673100	0.798700
74	Greece	0.157600	0.030000	0.153000
75	Greenland	0.000000	0.218800	0.459200
76	Grenada	0.266100	0.000000	0.589800
77	Guadeloupe	0.000000	0.093300	0.306900
78	Guam	0.000000	0.732000	0.408200
79	Guatemala	0.512200	0.458600	0.375300
80	Guinea	0.738900	0.772500	0.264900
81	Guinea-Bissau	0.808200	0.814100	0.612800
82	Guyana	0.619500	0.068800	0.787600
83	Haiti	0.095000	0.000000	0.470400
84	Honduras	0.186700	0.055300	0.235700
85	Hong Kong	0.062000	0.212800	0.419100
86	Hungary	0.152200	0.029700	0.524400
87	Iceland	0.079800	0.082000	0.191300
88	India	0.418200	0.806900	0.326000
89	Indonesia	0.735100	0.768000	0.234000
90	Iran	0.668400	0.746200	0.115200
91	Iraq	0.368900	0.369400	0.484400
92	Ireland	0.120600	0.031200	0.155000
93	Isle of Man	0.000000	0.000000	0.472900
94	Israel	0.343600	0.552500	0.346900
95	Italy	0.114500	0.114700	0.302700
96	Jamaica	0.412900	0.109800	0.616000
97	Japan	0.011900	0.017800	0.540600
98	Jersey	0.000000	0.000000	0.547900
99	Jordan	0.592600	0.039600	0.065900
100	Kazakhstan	0.617100	0.662100	0.589800
101	Kenya	0.858800	0.886000	0.776500
102	Kiribati	0.051100	0.023700	0.554100
103	Korea, South	0.039200	0.002800	0.489100
104	Korea, North	0.002000	0.002100	0.660400
105	Kyrgyzstan	0.675200	0.594900	0.447000
106	Kuwait	0.660400	0.344400	0.674500
107	Laos	0.513900	0.638200	0.545300
108	Latvia	0.586700	0.579500	0.555600
109	Lebanon	0.131400	0.131200	0.788600
110	Lesotho	0.255000	0.254300	0.721100
111	Liberia	0.908400	0.903800	0.488300
112	Libya	0.792000	0.075800	0.057000
113	Liechtenstein	0.572600	0.224600	0.334300
114	Lithuania	0.322300	0.321900	0.414100
115	Luxembourg	0.530200	0.644000	0.091100
116	Macau	0.000000	0.251900	0.551100
117	Macedonia	0.502300	0.502100	0.589900
118	Madagascar	0.879100	0.020400	0.519100
119	Malawi	0.674400	0.602300	0.819200
120	Malaysia	0.588000	0.597000	0.665700
121	Mali	0.690600	0.838800	0.182000
122	Malta	0.041400	0.090700	0.122300
123	Marshall Islands	0.060300	0.073400	0.520700
124	Martinique	0.000000	0.000000	0.233600
125	Mauritania	0.615000	0.326000	0.014900
126	Mauritius	0.463400	0.454700	0.638500
127	Mayotte	0.000000	0.721200	0.062000
128	Mexico	0.541800	0.151100	0.179600
129	Micronesia	0.700500	0.748300	0.646900
130	Moldova	0.553500	0.553300	0.560300
131	Monaco	0.683800	0.730500	0.304700
132	Mongolia	0.368200	0.373400	0.079900
133	Morocco	0.484100	0.468300	0.003500
134	Mozambique	0.693200	0.812500	0.675900
135	Burma	0.506200	0.507200	0.197400
136	Namibia	0.632900	0.700500	0.662600
137	Nauru	0.583200	0.616100	0.619400
138	Nepal	0.663200	0.716700	0.141700
139	Netherlands Antilles	0.000000	0.250800	0.386600
140	Netherlands	0.105400	0.514300	0.722200
141	New Caledonia	0.000000	0.663300	0.546200
142	New Zealand	0.396900	0.165700	0.811000
143	Nicaragua	0.484400	0.047300	0.429000
144	Niger	0.651800	0.651900	0.201300
145	Nigeria	0.850500	0.831600	0.742100
146	Northern Mariana Islands	0.000000	0.775400	0.481100
147	Norway	0.058600	0.067300	0.204800
148	Oman	0.437300	0.356700	0.432200
149	Pakistan	0.709800	0.719000	0.384800
150	Palau	0.431200	0.315700	0.714700
151	Panama	0.552800	0.387300	0.333800
152	Papua New Guinea	0.271800	0.352600	0.552300
153	Paraguay	0.168900	0.597500	0.212300
154	Peru	0.656600	0.335800	0.198800
155	Philippines	0.238500	0.836000	0.305600
156	Poland	0.118300	0.046800	0.171200
157	Portugal	0.046800	0.019800	0.143800
158	Puerto Rico	0.000000	0.035200	0.495200
159	Qatar	0.745600	0.480000	0.095000
160	Reunion	0.000000	0.157800	0.195200
161	Romania	0.306900	0.172300	0.237300
162	Russian Federation	0.245200	0.248500	0.439800
163	Rwanda	0.323800	0.000000	0.506600
164	Saint Lucia	0.176900	0.316900	0.332000
165	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0.306600	0.017500	0.702800
166	Western Samoa	0.137600	0.011100	0.787100
167	San Marino	0.292700	0.000000	0.197500
168	Sao Tome and Principe	0.000000	0.232200	0.186600
169	Saudi Arabia	0.180000	0.094900	0.127000
170	Senegal	0.693900	0.708100	0.149700
171	Serbia	0.573600	0.000000	0.000000
172	Seychelles	0.202500	0.160600	0.232300
173	Sierra Leone	0.819100	0.763400	0.539500
174	Singapore	0.385700	0.383500	0.656100
175	Slovak Republic	0.253900	0.255100	0.565500
176	Slovenia	0.221600	0.220100	0.286800
177	Solomon Islands	0.111000	0.525400	0.670800
178	Somalia	0.811700	0.032600	0.002800
179	South Africa	0.751700	0.865200	0.860300
180	Spain	0.416500	0.413200	0.451400
181	Sri Lanka	0.415000	0.464500	0.485300
182	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0.184200	0.000000	0.661400
183	Sudan	0.714700	0.719000	0.430700
184	Suriname	0.733200	0.331000	0.791000
185	Swaziland	0.058200	0.172200	0.444400
186	Sweden	0.060000	0.196800	0.234200
187	Switzerland	0.531400	0.544100	0.608300
188	Syria	0.539900	0.181700	0.431000
189	Taiwan	0.274400	0.502800	0.684500
190	Tajikistan	0.510700	0.547300	0.338600
191	Tanzania	0.735300	0.898300	0.633400
192	Thailand	0.633800	0.634400	0.099400
193	Togo	0.709900	0.898000	0.659600
194	Tonga	0.086900	0.378200	0.621400
195	Trinidad and Tobago	0.647500	0.125100	0.793600
196	Tunisia	0.039400	0.012400	0.010400
197	Turkey	0.320000	0.221600	0.004900
198	Turkmenistan	0.391800	0.398400	0.232700
199	Tuvalu	0.162900	0.137200	0.252400
200	Uganda	0.930200	0.922700	0.633200
201	Ukraine	0.473700	0.474100	0.615700
202	United Arab Emirates	0.625200	0.487400	0.331000
203	United Kingdom	0.121100	0.053200	0.694400
204	United States	0.490100	0.564700	0.824100
205	Uruguay	0.250400	0.081700	0.354800
206	Uzbekistan	0.412500	0.412000	0.213300
207	Vanuatu	0.041300	0.579400	0.704400
208	Venezuela	0.496600	0.068600	0.135000
209	Vietnam	0.238300	0.237700	0.508000
210	United States Virgin Islands	0.000000	0.314000	0.635900
211	West Bank	0.000000	0.143800	0.309500
212	Yemen	0.000000	0.008000	0.002300
213	Yugoslavia	0.809200	0.606400	0.553000
214	Zambia	0.780800	0.873400	0.735900
215	Zimbabwe	0.387400	0.447200	0.736300

References

1. A. Alesina, E. La Ferrara (2005). "Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance" (PDF). Journal of Economic Literature: 762–800. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
2. Natalka Patsiurko, John L. Campbell and John A. Hall (2012). "Measuring cultural diversity: ethnic, linguistic and religious fractionalization in the OECD" (PDF). Ethnic and Racial Studies 35 (2): 195–217. doi:10.1080/01419870.2011.579136. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
3. James Fearon (2003). "Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country" (PDF). Journal of Economic Growth 8: 195–222. doi:10.1023/A:1024419522867.
4. Alberto Alesina; et al. (2003). "Fractionalization" (PDF). Journal of Economic Growth 8: 155–194. doi:10.1023/a:1024471506938. Retrieved September 13, 2012.