Is America the most diverse country in the world?

[Bettafish]

Originally Posted by magicinterest

So you’re comparing states now? Which are usually on a different scale to cities.

I guess the difference here would be “cultural” vs ethnic.

For one, India has greater regional diversity, but it’s not diverse in an ethnic or international sense.

The US has only one official language de facto (de facto because it is not stated in law).

India, China etc. have multiple regional official languages, plus one or more national official language(s).
Switzerland is a tiny country but it has four official languages.

[EliEverIsAHero]

Without bringing up any of the politics or often-discussed controversies involved in the country, I've found the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be the most diverse place I've been in terms of ethnicity and national origin. It's amazing the amount of Indians, Filipinos, and Europeans who have more friends in and closer ties to that country than to their countries of origin. It is home to a lot of multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-religious families that could be considered either "stateless" or "world citizens" depending on your perspective. That country's government is also expanding its policy on religious diversity (within certain limits). And there are certain aspects of diversity (which I'll get to next) that are not well-represented in that country for predictable legal and cultural reasons, and for which the United States has an advantage.

In terms of other aspects of diversity like sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and disability status, going back to the USA: the USA is one of the places in the world where those aspects of diversity are better represented and in most large cities you will find an accepting community for your sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or disability. More anti-discrimination legislation and policy is in place than in much of the rest of the world (not that this prevents complex legal, workplace, and interpersonal conflicts, especially ones where there is an aspect of discrimination or harassment involved on the part of most/all parties involved). However, the USA is a large country and it depends on where you are. There are absolutely parts of the United States where, even if a particular demographic group is well-represented, it's at least frowned upon to be outside the assumed default of white, protestant, heterosexual, etc.

[BigCityDreamer]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

India, China etc. have multiple regional official languages, plus one or more national official language(s).

India has nearly constant political, religious and sectarian unrest. It has multiple news media that are mouthpieces of rival political parties. It is also not exactly on friendly terms with neighboring countries.

These diverse countries with over 1 billion people sure are interesting human experiments.

[Mhc1985]

India has 11 languages with more than 30 million native speakers, and uses 12 different writing scripts (including Latin script for English and the variation of Arab script for Urdu). TWELVE!!!

[Bettafish]

Originally Posted by Mhc1985

India has 11 languages with more than 30 million native speakers, and uses 12 different writing scripts (including Latin script for English and the variation of Arab script for Urdu). TWELVE!!!

China has quite a few official scripts too:
Chinese characters: standard Chinese and all Chinese dialects
Arabic script: Uyghur, Kazakh, etc.
Tibetan script: Tibetan etc.
Mongolian script: Mongolian etc.
Korean script: Korean
Dai script: Dai
Yi script: Yi
Latin: Zhuang etc.
... ...

The bank notes have 5 scripts.
(Note: Kazakhstan and Mongolia use Cyril script, but in China ethnic Kazakhs use Arabic script and ethnic Mongols use traditional Mongolian script.)

[inbred-anglo]

According to research done by Harvard and Berkeley the most diverse country in the world is Papua New Guinea.

The Us is like 56 amongst 198 or something countries.