Surat is Gujarat’s most linguistically diverse district

Surat is the most linguistically diverse city in Gujarat, with its residents speaking as many as 54 of India’s 124 languages. Almost half the residents of Surat city declared that their mother tongue was a language other than Gujarati. Surat boasts of having speakers of the highest number of Indian languages - 57. The population in Surat city is so diverse that Gujarati is the mother tongue of just 54.80% of its population. The census data revealed that 90 different Indian languages are spoken in Gujarat, including all of India’s 22 scheduled languages. The second most diverse population is in the border district of Kutch, with its residents speaking 53 different Indian languages. The tribal district of Dang on the western slope of Sahiyadris has the smallest proportion of native Gujarati speakers, just 32.50%. The majority of Dang residents speak Dangli, a dialect of the Khandeshi language.