Auroville: a rich Linguistic Field
33 years after its founding in 1968, Auroville has grown into a vibrant township of about 1655 persons from 37 nationalities, with new persons joining at the rate of about 100 per year. The enormously diverse population, whose members have dedicated their entire selves to building this city of dawn together, manifests powerfully the principle of unity in diversity. Situated in the middle of villages of Tamil Nadu, Auroville is in deep and daily interaction with a mainly rural population of about 40,000 villagers, whose life has been influenced deeply by its growth as well as that of the nearby city of Pondicherry.

The meeting of cultures and the remarkable linguistic diversity provide an extraordinary opportunity for mutual enrichment. The interaction of languages here in Auroville, (from the local language, Tamil - repository of a rich and ancient cultural heritage - to languages from India, all over Europe, and other parts of the world) provides an exceptional field for a joyous exploration of cultural difference, a means of enhancing mutual respect and inter-cultural understanding, and of discovering our essential Human Unity.

The population includes 1283 adults and 372 children.
The single largest nationality is Indian (645) followed by French (272) and German (220). The majority of Indian Aurovilians are from the local area.

Others include: Dutch (79), Italian (71), American (68), British (43), Swiss (43), Spanish (30), Russian (30), Belgian (23), Canadian (21), Ukrainian (20), Swedish (13), Australian (11), Korean (10) and Argentinean (9).

Single Digit nationalities include: Austrian, Brazilian, Hungarian, Tibetan, Sri Lankan, Colombian, Estonian, New Zealander, Slovene, Algerian, Byelorussian, Ethiopian, Indonesian, Japanese, Latvian, and Nepali.

Mixed Nationalities include: American/Irish, Argentinean/Italian, Australian/French, Australian/German, Austrian/Italian, French/British, French/German, French/Indian, French/Irish, French/Italian, French/Spanish, French/Swiss, French/Ukrainian, German/Indian, Italian/Spanish, and Swiss/French.