All the banjos I’ve seen have had 4 strings and half of a fifth one, why is this?
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As u/wikigreenwood82 said, it’s a [drone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_(sound)) string. If someone is playing the 5-string banjo, then 98% of the time they will not fret that string. It will just be picked (or struck) as an open string. So that open G-note (as it is often tuned) just goes ping-ping-ping-ping through the song.
Instruments that are like banjos (skin head stretched over a gourd or circular frame, a neck, some strings) were developed independently throughout the world. The antecedent to the American 5 string banjo (or ancestor-instrument, if you will) is believed to have it’s origins in Western Africa — probably looking a lot like the [akontig](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akonting). People who were captured and taken over the Atlantic to become slaves would have carried the idea in their heads and built new instruments in the New World.
Whoever put the first drone string onto an akontig didn’t leave any written record to explain why, but the use of drone-notes in music is widespread. Probably because it fills up the space and ties the whole piece of music together without taking up mental energy or finger movements. It’s particularly beneficial because the banjo usually has a rapid, steep decay. That is, as soon as you hear a string make a noise (from being plucked) the volume drops off quite sharply and it disappears into silence. [Bagpipes usually have a drone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagpipes#Drone), but while that drone is usually a very low note the drone on a 5 string banjo is quite a high note.
*Of all harmonic devices, [a drone] is not only the simplest, but probably also the most fertile.* — Peter van der Merwe, 1989
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