Classroomtools.com Warm-up Activity - Interesting Numbers - What language has the highest number of native speakers?

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What language has the largest number of native speakers?

answer (according to Ethnologue for speakers in 1996): Mandarin Chinese (c. 885 million). Number 2 was Spanish (c. 332 million). Number 3 was English (c. 322 million). 11 of the top 100 languages are spoken in China. In order they are

Mandarin, 885 million native speakers

Wu, 77.175 million native speakers (#10 on the list)

Yue, 66 million native speakers (#16)

Min Nan, 49 million native speakers (#21)

Jinyu, 45 million native speakers (#22)

Xiang, 36.015 million native speakers (#28)

Hakka, 34 million native speakers (#30)

Gan, 20.580 million native speakers (#45)

Min Bei, 10.537 million native speakers (#78)

Northern Zhuang, 10 million native speakers (#80)

Uyghur, 7.595712 million native speakers (#98)

Click here to see the distribution of living world languages compiled by Ethnologue.
For more numbers with which to depict the world, see the Classroomtools.com activity The World in a Room.

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