World Language Map

Languages spoken in China

407 living languages are mapped in China. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is Mandarin Chinese (90% of the population). They belong to 11 language families, the largest being Sino-Tibetan (220 languages).

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of China at a glance

  • 407living languages
  • 11language families
  • 1.4 billionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 12with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in China. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

The 40 most widely spoken languages in China

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
Mandarin ChineseSino-Tibetan90%1,274,436,000Not endangered
Yue ChineseSino-Tibetan10%147,268,160Not endangered
Wu ChineseSino-Tibetan6%84,962,400Not endangered
Xiang ChineseSino-Tibetan2.9%41,065,160Not endangered
Hakka ChineseSino-Tibetan2.3%32,568,920Not endangered
Min Nan ChineseSino-Tibetan1.9%26,904,760Not endangered
Gan ChineseSino-Tibetan1.7%24,072,680Not endangered
Sichuan YiSino-Tibetan0.6%8,496,240Not endangered
UighurTurkic0.6%7,788,220Not endangered
Halh MongolianMongolic-Khitan0.3%3,681,704Not endangered
TibetanSino-Tibetan0.2%2,832,080Not endangered
KoreanKoreanic0.2%2,124,060Not endangered
A'ouTai-KadaiNearly extinct
AcheSino-TibetanThreatened
Ai-ChamTai-KadaiThreatened
Ainu (China)TurkicShifting
AkeuSino-TibetanShifting
AkhaSino-TibetanNot endangered
Alo PholaSino-TibetanThreatened
AluguSino-TibetanNot endangered
AluoSino-TibetanShifting
Amdo TibetanSino-TibetanNot endangered
AmisAustronesianThreatened
Ani PhowaSino-TibetanThreatened
AtayalAustronesianThreatened
AwuSino-TibetanThreatened
Axi YiSino-TibetanThreatened
AyiziSino-TibetanNearly extinct
AzhaSino-TibetanNot endangered
AzheSino-TibetanNot endangered
Baha BuyangTai-KadaiMoribund
BaimaSino-TibetanShifting
BangruSino-TibetanNot endangered
BaonaoHmong-MienThreatened
BaraamuSino-TibetanNearly extinct
BasumSino-TibetanThreatened
Biao MonHmong-MienThreatened
Biao-Jiao MienHmong-MienNearly extinct
BisuSino-TibetanShifting
BitAustroasiaticMoribund

Read more: where is Mandarin Chinese spoken?

Language families in China

All 407 languages in China, A to Z

About these numbers

The list of languages in China comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in China

How many languages are spoken in China?

407 living languages are mapped in China, from 11 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in China?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Mandarin Chinese is spoken by 90% of the population, about 1,274,436,000 people, followed by Yue Chinese (10%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in China?

Sino-Tibetan (220 languages), Tai-Kadai (65 languages), Hmong-Mien (41 languages), Austroasiatic (24 languages) and Austronesian (16 languages), and 6 more.

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