STATISTICS- How many people are learning mandarin?

[LinzF]

I am trying to get hold of the most accurate figures for the number of people learning mandarin across the world and how they are learning it (i.e the figures for univesities, private tutors etc). Does anyone have any resources that would help?

[adrianlondon]

I don't see how anyone could have, or even guess, that figure. Best of luck!

[Rrina]

Yes, indeed, it sounds like an impossible task. But maybe it's possible to get statistics at least for certain countries. In the US you could maybe try to talk to the teachers of foreign languages association, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. I wonder if UNESCO deals with this kind of stuff.

Or maybe you can get at whatever you're trying to get by other means -like, instead of the number of students try to get an idea of how large the waiting lists are at some places, or how many teachers there are or are needed. Well of course it depends on the purpose of your research. Good luck.

[asialinks]

considering more then 1.3 billion people around the world speak chinese and Mandarin Chinese alone has around 850 million native speakers, outnumbering any other language in the world.... but didn't really see much breakdown of how many are learning it at one time but this figure alone speak volume...