A total of 53.06 percent of China’s population can “effectively communicate orally in Mandarin,” according to China’s Ministry of Education, which recently conducted a survey of half a million people. The rate in cities was 66 percent, while in rural areas it was 45 percent, the ministry said.
The survey also found that 56.76 percent of Chinese men can speak Putonghua, while 49.22 percent of women speak it. About 70 percent of people between the age of 15 and 29 speak mandarin, while only 30.97 percent between the age of 60 and 69 can speak standard mandarin.
Although the stories on this do not mention this, the results are essentially identical with those of a similar survey in 2004. According to that survey:
- “nearly 53 percent of the 1.3 billion Chinese in the country” can speak Mandarin
- 66 percent of the citizens in China’s cities and towns can speak Mandarin (This wording may be an indication that China’s large “floating population” was not included.)
- 45 percent of those in rural areas can speak Mandarin
resources:
- More than half of Chinese can speak mandarin, Xinhua, March 7, 2007
- Using Putonghua, Pinyin News, December 28, 2004
Pingback: Atrament « /me?.t?m??(r)fi?m/
Is there a list of the languages spoken by percent of the population?
The only solution is to wait for the recalcitrant older generation to die out. The offspring of the 70% Mandarin capable 20-29 year olds will surely be able to speak Mandarin. 10-20 years perhaps.
I should also add that this CCP rant slaps itself in the face. “Most Chinese are verbally bilingual speaking not only mandarin, which has many regional accents, but a completely different sounding dialect of Chinese.” As different as Italian and Romanian, two “Latin Dialects”!!!!
i love mandarin and the whole of china speaks it and it the offical language of the chinese population
I love Mandarin, too (most days, at least); but the whole of China most definitely does not speak it. For that matter, not everyone in China even speaks a Sinitic language, though the CCP is doing what it can to have Mandarin push all the other languages in the PRC into irrelevance.
Pingback: There aren't a Billion Mandarin Speakers in China