Number of Living Languages, by Country (2024)
graph from Our World in Data, slow reveal by Jenna Laib
(Slide deck includes notes and questions to elicit discourse)
Type of Graph: bar graph
Visualization Source: Our World in Data, “The number of languages, indigenous and non-indigenous, that are still used.” Our World in Data: July 17, 2024.
“Data Page: Living languages”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre and Pablo Arriagada (2023) – “State Capacity”. Data adapted from Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) International. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/living-languages
Data Source: Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) International (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Living languages” [dataset]. Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) International, “Ethnologue” [original data]. Retrieved March 23, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/living-languages
Potential Math Content: bar graph, comparing values, multiplicative comparisons, fractions, large numbers, estimating values
Potential Content Connections: languages, international
Additional Teaching:
– Review the data from other countries on Our World in Data.
– Create a graph for a sample of different countries.
Explain why you chose those countries, and what takeaways you have from your new graph.
Student may use grid paper to create their visualization. They will need to consider the scale along the y-axis.
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