- ISO 3166
CN- Main language + region
zh-CN- Currency
- CNY · Chinese Yuan
- Region
- APAC · Greater China · CJK
China
China has 1.4B people, and 1.3B of them are online. Chinese is the most widely spoken language at 90%, one of 14 languages CLDR lists here. Chinese is official nationally, and Uyghur and Zhuang are official in part of the territory. A product shipping here defaults to zh-CN.
Market summary
Each figure carries its own world scale, so it reads without a second market beside it.
People online
1.3B
0%world median 81%100%
92% of 1.4B people use the internet, per the World Bank's 2025 figure. Estimated by multiplying CLDR population by that share.
Income per person
$13,862
Higher than 57% of 213 territories
GDP per capita in current US dollars, World Bank Open Data, most recent reported year. A rough guide to spending power, not revenue.
Can pay online
89%
0%world median 71%100%
Adults aged 15 and over holding a bank or mobile-money account, World Bank Global Findex 2024. Below half means a card-only checkout excludes most of the market.
Languages
14
Chinese 90% · Wu Chinese 6% · Cantonese 5.2%
Languages CLDR records here with a share of 0.1% or more. 1 of them is official nationally.
English proficiency
464
Very lowVery high
Low proficiency on the EF EPI 2025 scale. The sample is self-selected online test takers. It never enters any score on this site.
Adult literacy
95%
0%world median 95%100%
Share of adults who can read, as recorded in CLDR territory data. Low literacy shifts a product toward icons, audio, and video before another language.
What people speak
Shares include second languages, so totals can exceed 100%.
Most spoken in China
share of 1.4B people
- Chineseofficial90%1.3B
- Wu Chinese6%85M
- Cantonese5.2%73.6M
- Cantonese5.2%73.6M
- Xiang Chinese2.9%41.1M
- Hakka Chinese2.3%32.6M
- Min Nan Chinese1.9%26.9M
- Gan Chinese1.7%24.1M
Filled bars are nationally official languages. Bars are scaled to the largest language rather than to 100%. 6 more languages sit below the top eight, at 2.1% combined.
CLDR records Chinese in 20 territories and 1.3B speakers in total; China holds 96% of them, and the rest come with the same translation. The Chinese profile maps the whole footprint.
Day-one requirements
What the interface needs for the main language spoken here (zh-CN).
Plural categories
1
Word-forms a translator writes for counted text. One form fits every count here.
Script family
CJK
Bundle a Noto-class webfont that covers this script. OS defaults vary.
Reading direction
Left-to-right
Standard. Use dir='auto' on user-generated content fields.
Date
2026年4月21日
Short: 2026/4/21
Time
18:30
Week starts Mon
Currency
¥1,234.56
1,234.56 in CNY · Chinese Yuan
The engineering behind the flags: Font fallback: why the OS picks the wrong glyphs for this script