According to the 2010 census, Indonesia has approximately 800 languages spoken. Other sources classify several of them as dialects of the same language, putting the total number of distinct languages at around 700.
Indonesia is often considered to be one of the world's most linguistically varied countries.
As time passes, that number drops, but according to Ethnologue, Indonesia remains one of the most linguistically varied countries after Papua New Guinea.
Papua New Guinea is the world's most linguistically diverse country, with more than twice as many languages spoken as the entire continent of Europe.
On the islands of the country, over 94 languages are spoken per million people. To put things in perspective, just about one language is spoken per one million people in the United States.
Indonesia is second on the list, with 712 different languages spoken across the country, followed by Nigeria, which has 522 spoken languages.
The predominant linguistic franca is Indonesian (also known as Bahasa Indonesia). Over 94 percent of the population speaks Indonesian.
But here's a nice fact! By over 94 percent population, only 20 percent speaks Bahasa Indonesia as their first language. Javanese (Jawa) is the most widely spoken main language, with about 30% of the population speaking it.
The local language, Javanese, is more interesting, as it can have a variety of dialects. The Javanese language, for example, has numerous dialects. This indigenous language is spoken in several dialects in wide areas such as East Java, Central Java, and Yogyakarta. Furthermore, there are variances in terminology.
Source: statista.com, translatorswithoutborders.org, theindonesia.suara.com
