European countries ranked by ethnic and cultural diversity level

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

The lists are commonly used in economics literature to compare the levels of ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious fractionalization in different countries.

Based on Fearon's analysis

(In the Fearon list, ethnic 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)

Ethnic Fractionalization Index (2003)

1. Portugal 0.040
2. Italy 0.040
3. Poland 0.047
4. Greece 0.059
5. Netherlands 0.077
6. Germany 0.095
7. Albania 0.097
8. Norway 0.098
9. Austria 0.126
10. Denmark 0.128
11. Finland 0.132
12. Ireland 0.171
13. Hungary 0.186
14. Sweden 0.189
15. Slovenia 0.231
16. France 0.272
17. Bulgaria 0.299
18. Romania 0.300
19. Czech Republic 0.322
20. United Kingdom
21. Slovakia 0.332
22. Russia 0.333
23. Lithuania 0.338
24. Cyprus 0.359
25. Belarus 0.372
26. Croatia 0.375
27. Ukraine 0.419
28. Spain 0.502
29. Moldova 0.510
30. Estonia 0.511
31. North Macedonia 0.535
32. Belgium 0.567
33. Switzerland 0.575
34. Latvia 0.585
35. Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.681

Cultural Diversity Index (2003)

(This index of cultural diversity is biased towards linguistic variations as opposed to genetic diversity and other variations)

1. Portugal 0.040
2. Italy 0.040
3. Poland 0.041
4. Greece 0.050
5. Czech Republic 0.064
6. Netherlands 0.077
7. Albania 0.082
8. Germany 0.090
9. Norway 0.098
10. Austria 0.100
11. Denmark 0.128
12. Finland 0.132
13. Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.146
14. Ireland 0.157
15. Slovenia 0.170
16. United Kingdom 0.184
17. Croatia 0.185
18. Hungary 0.185
19. Sweden 0.189
20. Belarus 0.228
21. Bulgaria 0.250
22. France 0.251
23. Ukraine 0.258
24. Lithuania 0.259
25. Spain 0.263
26. Romania 0.265
27. Slovakia 0.293
28. Russia 0.311
29. Cyprus 0.359
30. Moldova 0.401
31. Switzerland 0.418
32. North Macedonia 0.432
33. Latvia 0.441
34. Belgium 0.462
35. Estonia 0.492

---

Based on Alesina et al's analysis

(This list is based on the analysis of Alesina and others, they develop fractionalization scores based on ethnicity, religious and linguistic data directly from the Encyclopedia 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)

Ethnic Fractionalization Index

1. Malta 0.041400
2. Portugal 0.046800
3. Norway 0.058600
4. Sweden 0.060000
5. Iceland 0.079800
6. Denmark 0.081900
7. Cyprus 0.093900
8. France 0.103200
9. Netherlands 0.105400
10. Austria 0.106800
11. Italy 0.114500
12. Poland 0.118300
13. Ireland 0.120600
14. United Kingdom 0.121100
15. Finland 0.131500
16. Hungary 0.152200
17. Greece 0.157600
18. Germany 0.168200
19. Albania 0.220400
20. Slovenia 0.221600
21. Russia 0.245200
22. Slovakia 0.253900
23. Romania 0.306900
24. Belarus 0.322200
25. Czech Republic 0.322200
26. Lithuania 0.322300
27. Croatia 0.369000
28. Bulgaria 0.402100
29. Spain 0.416500
30. Ukraine 0.473700
31. Macedonia 0.502300
32. Estonia 0.506200
33. Luxembourg 0.530200
34. Switzerland 0.531400
35. Moldova 0.553500
36. Belgium 0.555400
37. Liechtenstein 0.572600
38. Serbia 0.573600
39. Latvia 0.586700
40. Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.630000

Linguistic Fractionalization Index

1. Serbia 0.000000
2. Portugal 0.019800
3. Hungary 0.029700
4. Greece 0.030000
5. Ireland 0.031200
6. Albania 0.039900
7. Poland 0.046800
8. United Kingdom 0.053200
9. Norway 0.067300
10. Croatia 0.076300
11. Iceland 0.082000
12. Malta 0.090700
13. Denmark 0.104900
14. Italy 0.114700
15. France 0.122100
16. Finland 0.141200
17. Austria 0.152200
18. Germany 0.164200
19. Romania 0.172300
20. Sweden 0.196800
21. Slovenia 0.220100
22. Russia 0.248500
23. Slovakia 0.255100
24. Bulgaria 0.303100
25. Lithuania 0.321900
26. Czech Republic 0.323300
27. Cyprus 0.396200
28. Spain 0.413200
29. Belarus 0.466600
30. Ukraine 0.474100
31. Estonia 0.494400
32. Macedonia 0.502100
33. Netherlands 0.514300
34. Belgium 0.540900
35. Switzerland 0.544100
36. Moldova 0.553300
37. Latvia 0.579500
38. Luxembourg 0.644000
39. Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.675100

Religious Fractionalization Index

1. Serbia 0.000000
2. Portugal 0.143800
3. Greece 0.153000
4. Ireland 0.155000
5. Poland 0.171200
6. Iceland 0.191300
7. Norway 0.204800
8. Belgium 0.212700
9. Denmark 0.233300
10. Sweden 0.234200
11. Romania 0.237300
12. Finland 0.253100
13. Slovenia 0.286800
14. Italy 0.302700
15. Cyprus 0.396200
16. France 0.402900
17. Lithuania 0.414100
18. Austria 0.414600
19. Russia 0.439800
20. Croatia 0.444700
21. Spain 0.451400
22. Albania 0.471900
23. Estonia 0.498500
24. Hungary 0.524400
25. Latvia 0.555600
26. Moldova 0.560300
27. Slovakia 0.565500
28. Bulgaria 0.596500
29. Switzerland 0.608300
30. Belarus 0.611600
31. Ukraine 0.615700
32. Germany 0.657100
33. Czech Republic 0.659100
34. Bosnia and Herzegovina 0.685100
35. United Kingdom 0.69440
36. Netherlands 0.722200

In the last two indexes (linguistics and religious), Serbia has a score of 0 which would mean it is 100% Linguistically and Religiously homogeneous which obviously it is not, far from it.I assume it is a mistake but I left it as it was presented regardless of that. I also did not include a few European micro-states such as Andorra, Monaco, Faeroe Islands, etc.

This is basically a copy\paste from an Wikipedia's article, so you can read more in here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...iversity_level

[Jana]

Croatia is one of ethnically most homogenous countries in Europe. How can it be placed below Romania or Slovenia (20%+ non-Slovenians)? Makes no sense.
As well as religiously. It's over 90% ethnic Croat and Catholic.

LOL placing us below Belarus or Lithuania with huge Russian minoprities.

[Defcon2]

Croatia is one of ethnically most homogenous countries in Europe. How can it be placed below Romania or Slovenia (20%+ non-Slovenians)? Makes no sense.
As well as religiously. It's over 90% ethnic Croat and Catholic.

LOL placing us below Belarus or Lithuania with huge Russian minoprities.

The full list is even more ridiculous, China much more ethnically homogeneous than Spain. It's a random lists.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

I think you guys are not interpreting the data correctly.

"Fractionalization is the probability that two individuals drawn randomly from the country's groups are not from the same group (ethnic, religious, or whatever the criterion is)".

90% of China is Han Chinese, btw.

[Blondie]

This data is complete bullshit.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Croatia is one of ethnically most homogenous countries in Europe. How can it be placed below Romania or Slovenia (20%+ non-Slovenians)? Makes no sense.
As well as religiously. It's over 90% ethnic Croat and Catholic.

LOL placing us below Belarus or Lithuania with huge Russian minoprities.

No former Yugoslavia's republic is that homogeneous, all have ethnic minorities. In fact, with the exception of Greece and Albania the Balkan peninsula is one of the least homogeneous regions in Europe in my opinion.

[Defcon2]

I think you guys are not interpreting the data correctly.

"Fractionalization is the probability that two individuals drawn randomly from the country's groups are not from the same group (ethnic, religious, or whatever the criterion is)".

90% of China is Han Chinese, btw.

The "Han" speak an intelligible language to each other and do not share the same religion, you will tell me that they have that 90% in common. By ethnicity I understand that it is language.
Red China recognizes some 56 ethnic groups, speaking some 300 languages, dialects it is not known how many there are. Absurd that surpasses any European country in homogeneity of any kind.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

The "Han" speak an intelligible language to each other and do not share the same religion, you will tell me that they have that 90% in common. By ethnicity I understand that it is language.
Red China recognizes some 56 ethnic groups, speaking some 300 languages, dialects it is not known how many there are. Absurd that surpasses any European country in homogeneity of any kind.

It is not absurd, you simply are failing to interpret the data. China could have 2000 different ethnic groups but if they represent 10% of the population you are less like to meet someone from a different ethnic group than lets say, a country that only has 2 ethnic minorities but they represent 30% of the entire population...

Again, "fractionalization is the probability that two individuals drawn randomly from the country's groups are not from the same group (ethnic, religious, or whatever the criterion is)".

Only 14% of the Chinese population considered themselves to be religious, they end up being homogeneous in the sense that they are the largest irreligious population in the world (much because that's what their Government endorses).

[Faklon]

No former Yugoslavia's republic is that homogeneous, all have ethnic minorities. In fact, with the exception of Greece and Albania the Balkan peninsula is one of the least homogeneous regions in Europe in my opinion.

Most of them speak the same language though no matter how they identify. I mean, if by language they include all Serbo-Croatians and by religion all Christians.

Also if Cyprus is included as a different ethnic than Greece, it is telling about ethnic fractionalization.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

Most of them speak the same language though no matter how identify.

Officially they all count as different languages for statistical\census purposes I believe. Croatia declares its language as Croatian, Serbians as Serbian, Bosnians as Bosnian and Montenegrins as Montenegrin.

Even the Wikipédia entry regarding the language is funny: "Serbo-Croatian – also called Serbo-Croat , Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro."

"What language do you speak?"

"I speak Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian."