Over one billion people speak the Chinese language. Approximately 95 percent of the Chinese population speaks Chinese, as opposed to the non-Chinese languages such as Tibetan, Mongolian, Lolo, Miao, and Tai spoken by minorities. The vast majority of the Chinese-speaking population is in China (over 980 million), Hong Kong, and Taiwan (19 million), but substantial numbers are also found throughout the whole of Southeast Asia, especially in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. In Singapore, Chinese is one of their four official languages. In Indonesia and Malaysia, Chinese is one of the important business languages popular in urban areas. Important Chinese-speaking communities are also found in many other parts of the world, especially in Europe, North and South America, and the Hawaiian Islands.
Mandarin Chinese, 863 million
Hindi (India), 357 million
English 335 million
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 90.9%
male: 95.1%
female: 86.5% (2002)
As of the year 2000, every second illiterate person in the world lives in India.
In India, one-third of all children aged 6 to 14 do not attend school. This is equal to 23 million boys and 36 million girls -- double the entire population of Canada. At least 30% more boys are enrolled in secondary school than girls, and at least 10% more boys are enrolled in primary school than girls.
60% of government primary schools in India's most populated state, Uttar Pradesh, have a decent building but only 1% have access to free textbooks.
India has one of the highest female-male literacy gaps in the world. Only 5 countries have a higher gap than India (Bhutan, Syria, Togo, Malawi, Mozambique). The state of Rajasthan alone has a population as large as that of all these countries combined and no country in the world has a higher female-male literacy gap than Rajasthan, where the literacy rate for women is a mere 5%.
