The purpose of this visualization project is to look into the number of endangered languages in the world, their endangerment levels, and distribution across countries. This dataset was published in the Datablog by The Guardian in 2011. They categorize the levels of endangerment by the following classification system provided by UNESCO:
Vulnerable - most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain domains (e.g., home). These languages are highly coded in diglossic situations
Definitely endangered - children no longer learn the language as a 'mother tongue' or first language in the home. The interruption of intergenerational transmission has started.
Severely endangered - language is spoken by grandparents and older generations; while the parent generation may understand it, they do not speak it to children or among themselves. At this stage, the language will be considered moribund as per the EGIDS scale.
Critically endangered - the youngest speakers are grandparents and older, and they speak the language partially and infrequently
Extinct - there are no speakers left
In this project, I show the distribution of the endangerment levels and speakers in top 20 countries with most number of unique endangered languages.