Mandarin Chinese

1.31B people can hold a conversation in Mandarin Chinese across 21 countries; official in 5.

Data as of 28 Oct 2026 · ISO 639-3 cmn · Glottolog mand1415 · Sino-Tibetan · CLDR 49, Glottolog 5.3, States sheet

Where Mandarin Chinese is spoken

Share of each country's people who can hold a conversation in it.

Loading map…

Small territories are not drawn at this scale.

Countries

Share of the population and people who can hold a conversation in it, by country.

How this is measured

Most figures are CLDR's estimates of speakers. CLDR lists only each country's larger languages, so where it has no figure a national census or official survey fills in, and the Figure column says which and what it counts. A home-language figure is a floor: more people can speak the language than use it at home.

Sort by

China

official

90%

1.26B

Taiwan

official

95%

22.1M

Hong Kong

official

95%

7.1M

Malaysia

none

17%

5.8M

Singapore

official

62%

3.8M

Indonesia

none

0.9%

2.7M

United States

none

0.7%

2.4M

Thailand

none

1.8%

1.2M

Vietnam

none

1.1%

1.1M

Canada

none

2.7%

1.1M

Philippines

none

0.7%

838K

Macau

official

98%

674K

#	Country			Status	Figure
1	China	90%	1.26B	official	CLDR
2	Taiwan	95%	22.1M	official	CLDR
3	Hong Kong	95%	7.1M	official	CLDR
4	Malaysia	17%	5.8M	none	CLDR
5	Singapore	62%	3.8M	official	CLDR
6	Indonesia	0.9%	2.7M	none	CLDR
7	United States	0.7%	2.4M	none	CLDR
8	Thailand	1.8%	1.2M	none	CLDR
9	Vietnam	1.1%	1.1M	none	CLDR
10	Canada	2.7%	1.1M	none	CLDR
11	Philippines	0.7%	838K	none	CLDR
12	Macau	98%	674K	official	CLDR
13	Australia	2.1%	584K	none	CLDR
14	United Kingdom	0.3%	208K	none	CLDR
15	Germany	0.2%	150K	none	Survey, main home language
16	Brunei	11%	50K	none	CLDR
17	Mongolia	1.4%	50K	none	CLDR
18	Tahiti	7.8%	22K	none	CLDR
19	French Guiana	2.5%	7K	none	CLDR
20	Suriname	1.1%	7K	none	CLDR
21	Panama	0.1%	5K	none	CLDR

States where it is the first language

States whose first language is this one, largest population first.

102M

99.4M

84.7M

83.7M

74.6M

66.4M

64.6M

61.0M

57.8M

50.1M

47.2M

45.2M

#	State	Country
1	Shandong	China	101,527,453
2	Henan	China	99,365,519
3	Jiangsu	China	84,748,016
4	Sichuan	China	83,674,866
5	Hebei	China	74,610,235
6	Hunan	China	66,444,864
7	Zhejiang	China	64,567,588
8	Anhui	China	61,027,171
9	Hubei	China	57,752,557
10	Guangxi	China	50,126,804
11	Yunnan	China	47,209,277
12	Jiangxi	China	45,188,635
13	Liaoning	China	42,591,407
14	Fujian	China	41,540,086
15	Shaanxi	China	39,528,999
16	Guizhou	China	38,562,148
17	Shanxi	China	34,915,616
18	Chongqing	China	32,054,159
19	Heilongjiang	China	31,850,088
20	Xinjiang	China	25,852,345
21	Gansu	China	25,019,831
22	Shanghai	China	24,870,895
23	Jilin	China	24,073,453
24	Inner Mongolia	China	24,049,155
25	Beijing	China	21,893,095
26	Tianjin	China	13,866,009
27	Hainan	China	10,081,232
28	Ningxia	China	7,202,654
29	Qinghai	China	5,923,957
30	Xinbei Shi [New Taipei City]	Taiwan	4,030,954
31	Tibet	China	3,648,100
32	Taizhong Shi [Taichung Shih]	Taiwan	2,820,787
33	Gaoxiong Shi [Kaohsiung Shih]	Taiwan	2,765,932
34	Taibei Shi [Taipei Shih]	Taiwan	2,602,418
35	Taoyuan Shi	Taiwan	2,268,807
36	Tainan Shi	Taiwan	1,874,917
37	Zhanghua [Changhua]	Taiwan	1,266,670
38	Pingdong [Pingtung]	Taiwan	812,658
39	Yunlin	Taiwan	676,873
40	Xinzhu [Hsinchu]	Taiwan	570,775
41	Miaoli	Taiwan	542,590
42	Jiayi [Chiayi]	Taiwan	499,481
43	Nantou	Taiwan	490,832
44	Yilan	Taiwan	453,087
45	Xinzhu Shi [Hsinchu Shih]	Taiwan	451,412
46	Jilong Shi [Chilung; Keelung]	Taiwan	367,577
47	Hualien	Taiwan	324,372
48	Jiayi Shi [Chiayi Shih]	Taiwan	266,005
49	Taidong [Taitung]	Taiwan	215,261
50	Jinmen [Kinmen; Quemoy]	Taiwan	140,597

Family

Where it sits in the Glottolog tree, root to language.

Sino-Tibetan
Sinitic
Classical-Middle-Modern Sinitic
Middle-Modern Sinitic
Northern Chinese
Mandarinic
Mandarin Chinese

Sino-Tibetan: 41 languages, 1.68B speakers.

Where these numbers come from

Unicode CLDR territoryInfo (release 49) (Unicode License v3). Country-level language shares, official status and Tier 3 reach (populationPercent is total speakers, first plus second language).
Glottolog 5.3 (CC BY 4.0). Language names, ISO 639-3 codes, families.
Database of International and Intranational Linguistic distances (DICL v2), USITC (CC BY 4.0). Country-pair linguistic proximity (loaded, not yet shown in release one).
States (ISO 3166-2) sheet, MetroAreas workbook (Citizen of Nowhere, own compilation). States, populations and the four language labels per state.
Natural Earth 1:110m Admin 0 Countries (nvkelso/natural-earth-vector) (Public domain). World outline for the language maps (world-110m.geojson, properties reduced to iso3 and name).
Country layer of this site (countries.json workbook population, World Bank iso2 and iso3, OWID country-population) (Citizen of Nowhere, own compilation; World Bank CC BY 4.0; OWID CC BY). Country population, iso2 and /countries slug joined onto languages, countries and families (speakers = share x population).

Definitions are on the Method page.