The aim of the present report is to examine the HLA genetic diversity of the populations submitted to the 13th IHWC in relation to their linguistic classification. The linguistic classification gave us a non-arbitrary way to arrange the data into different population groups, which we then used as distinct units to investigate the HLA genetic differentiation at the world level. We first performed global analyses to determine genetic distances among populations and assess their correlation to geographic distances, without taking into account the linguistic structure. In a second step, we estimated what proportion of genetic variation could be explained by the linguistic structure, and if it was significant. Finally, we explored the level of genetic differentiation within each linguistic family. Overall, these analyses were designed to evaluate whether the linguistic information could be relevant to interpret the HLA genetic structure among populations at the global level.