<p>China Mainland has 1.4 Billion population(and increasing), and the official language is Simplified Chinese. </p>

<p>According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/23/the-worlds-languages-in-7-maps-and-charts/?utm_term=.65b10e7e18d6" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the Washington Post</a>, there are about 1.5 Billion Chinese native speakers, 50 Million non-native speakers. You can do the math.</p>

<p>Obviously, you can't find another 1.4 billion group of people use Tradition Chinese on the earth.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T03:04:46.053Z
So just to clarify, nearly everyone in mainland China primarily uses simplified Chinese? I thought I had seen something stating a significant portion of schools still taught traditional Chinese. Sorry, I can't find the link and I realize I may be mis-remembering. But if a significant portion of schools still teach traditional Chinese despite the continued push for simplified Chinese, I would also expect that a significant portion of people still tend to use traditional Chinese. Does this contribute enough to make the numbers much closer? Thanks!
Shiania White
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T03:06:15.290Z
Or, am I completely mis-remembering and it's there's only a very small number of people in mainland China that still use traditional Chinese?
Shiania White
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T03:48:42.327Z
@ShianiaWhite I'm from mainland China and I've been there like 23 years. Tradition Chinese is not official anymore, you can learn it as a hobby. Some art still adapting tradition Chinese because that's history and art. And that's it.
Kevman
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T03:51:52.847Z
@ShianiaWhite No school taught tradition Chinese as main course, but more like elective one. What's interesting to me it's that traditional Chinese is fairly easy to be recognized.(But it's hard to write it down, simplified Chinese is more writing-friendly than traditional Chinese no doubt).
Kevman
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T03:57:29.033Z
@ShianiaWhite but yeah. In mainland Chinese people mainly use simplified Chinese. Just like people in American primarily use English. I thought it's common sense tho. You saw it on the news because it's rare. No new report a fairly ordinary thing.
Kevman
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T05:25:17.017Z
Traditional characters are often used in shop signs (in calligraphic style, mostly), in classical texts and in writing that is supposed to look old. But not in daily life
Philipp
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T05:26:40.503Z
@Philipp I know. I'm from Canton.
Kevman
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-05T18:44:54.330Z
2017-10-05T18:44:54.330Z
Kevman
<p>here's a metaphor:</p>

<p>the wiki has a page <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_distribution_on_Earth" rel="nofollow noreferrer">water distribution on earth</a>, which stated that seawater is 96.5% of all water on earth. factually, all people survive, depend on the 2.5% fresh water.</p>

<p>it shows that <strong>quantity means nothing, the quality is more important</strong>.</p>

<p>though, currently, there're more people know simplified chinese, but; <strong>all classical texts are in traditional chinese</strong>. if one cannot read traditional chinese, one cannot understand the history, culture, maybe all aspects of the writing records of the past.</p>

<p>traditional chinese is the key to understand the past; without it, how can one inherits "la culture chinoise"?　</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T08:41:26.237Z
So what is the remaining 1 % of water?
Philipp
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T09:07:42.257Z
the graph of the mentioned page has it named as "other saline water 0.9%" :)
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T14:12:33.707Z
Yeah. haha. But it also answers the original question indirectly - More people speak/use simplified Chinese now. I grew up in a mixed environment so simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese are native to me.
Kevman
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T07:37:11.427Z
2017-10-06T07:37:11.427Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>Worldwide, do most people use simplified or traditional Chinese writing? This can be either in the number that <em>tend</em> to use one over the other, or total number using each even though there will be overlaps of people who use both in different situations. If possible, does anyone have specific numbers? Are these numbers trending to exaggerate the difference or is the gap closing?</p>

<p>There are many resources which provide which countries/cities/areas tend to use which system. However, I'm having a surprising amount of difficult finding numbers, or even an authoritative answer on which one is more commonly used worldwide.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-04T22:36:08.710Z
China use simplified, Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional . The rest of the world many be half and half
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-05T09:16:25.937Z
Based on mainland alone, simplified wins hands down. Mainland population: 1.4 billion vs. overseas Chinese 50 million.
Mou某
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-06T08:46:52.060Z
What do you mean by "worldwide"? Mainland China has the great number of population, so if you take the entire world as "worldwide" it must be true that Simplified Chinese is far more common. Or do you mean any world except the entire China (including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan)?
Blaszard
<traditional-vs-simplified>
Do more people use simplified or traditional Chinese worldwide?
# Do more people use simplified or traditional Chinese worldwide?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-04)

Worldwide, do most people use simplified or traditional Chinese writing? This can be either in the number that *tend* to use one over the other, or total number using each even though there will be overlaps of people who use both in different situations. If possible, does anyone have specific numbers? Are these numbers trending to exaggerate the difference or is the gap closing?

There are many resources which provide which countries/cities/areas tend to use which system. However, I'm having a surprising amount of difficult finding numbers, or even an authoritative answer on which one is more commonly used worldwide.

**Tags:** traditional-vs-simplified

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: China use simplified, Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional . The rest of the world many be half and half  
> **username_2**: Based on mainland alone, simplified wins hands down. Mainland population: 1.4 billion vs. overseas Chinese 50 million.  
> **username_3**: What do you mean by "worldwide"? Mainland China has the great number of population, so if you take the entire world as "worldwide" it must be true that Simplified Chinese is far more common. Or do you mean any world except the entire China (including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan)?  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2017-10-05. Score: 3

China Mainland has 1.4 Billion population(and increasing), and the official language is Simplified Chinese.

According to [the Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/04/23/the-worlds-languages-in-7-maps-and-charts/?utm_term=.65b10e7e18d6), there are about 1.5 Billion Chinese native speakers, 50 Million non-native speakers. You can do the math.

Obviously, you can't find another 1.4 billion group of people use Tradition Chinese on the earth.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: So just to clarify, nearly everyone in mainland China primarily uses simplified Chinese? I thought I had seen something stating a significant portion of schools still taught traditional Chinese. Sorry, I can't find the link and I realize I may be mis-remembering. But if a significant portion of schools still teach traditional Chinese despite the continued push for simplified Chinese, I would also expect that a significant portion of people still tend to use traditional Chinese. Does this contribute enough to make the numbers much closer? Thanks!  
> **username_0**: Or, am I completely mis-remembering and it's there's only a very small number of people in mainland China that still use traditional Chinese?  
> **username_4**: @username_0 I'm from mainland China and I've been there like 23 years. Tradition Chinese is not official anymore, you can learn it as a hobby. Some art still adapting tradition Chinese because that's history and art. And that's it.  
> **username_4**: @username_0 No school taught tradition Chinese as main course, but more like elective one. What's interesting to me it's that traditional Chinese is fairly easy to be recognized.(But it's hard to write it down, simplified Chinese is more writing-friendly than traditional Chinese no doubt).  
> **username_4**: @username_0 but yeah. In mainland Chinese people mainly use simplified Chinese. Just like people in American primarily use English. I thought it's common sense tho. You saw it on the news because it's rare. No new report a fairly ordinary thing.  
> **username_5**: Traditional characters are often used in shop signs (in calligraphic style, mostly), in classical texts and in writing that is supposed to look old. But not in daily life  
> **username_4**: @username_5 I know. I'm from Canton.  

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### Answer by username_6 on 2017-10-06. Score: 1

here's a metaphor:

the wiki has a page [water distribution on earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_distribution_on_Earth), which stated that seawater is 96.5% of all water on earth. factually, all people survive, depend on the 2.5% fresh water.

it shows that **quantity means nothing, the quality is more important**.

though, currently, there're more people know simplified chinese, but; **all classical texts are in traditional chinese**. if one cannot read traditional chinese, one cannot understand the history, culture, maybe all aspects of the writing records of the past.

traditional chinese is the key to understand the past; without it, how can one inherits "la culture chinoise"?

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: So what is the remaining 1 % of water?  
> **username_6**: the graph of the mentioned page has it named as "other saline water 0.9%" :)  
> **username_4**: Yeah. haha. But it also answers the original question indirectly - More people speak/use simplified Chinese now. I grew up in a mixed environment so simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese are native to me.  

---

