Who's learning Mandarin? 210 million learners globally, celebrity kids and more

Students from 22 universities across 14 countries gathered in a circle. One by one, they added their signatures to a banner that read, "I promise to speak only Chinese from today onward."

They spent nine weeks in Shanghai this summer, studying Mandarin and soaking up Chinese culture, as part of NYU Shanghai's annual Summer Chinese Immersion Program. There's just one rule: Speak only Mandarin.

Nearly 60 students joined the program, up 50% from last year.

"Nine weeks wasn't easy, but it was definitely worth it, and I hope to keep learning," said Faith Parker, a student from Virginia Commonwealth University.

The students' experience reflects a growing global interest in learning Mandarin. It is already the world's second most spoken language by total number of speakers. Here are four facts about Mandarin learning.

Fact one: Celebrity families are taking Mandarin seriously

Learning Mandarin is becoming increasingly common among celebrity children.

According to the ABC, US President Donald Trump's granddaughter, founder of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla Elon Musk's son, and the children of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg are also learning Mandarin Chinese.

British actress Rosamund Pike, who is well known for her fluent Chinese and deep understanding of and love for Chinese culture, chose her own Chinese name Pei Chunhua (裴淳华) years ago. "Chun" (淳) conveys sincerity and simplicity, while "Hua" (华) can refer to China as well as beauty and elegance.

During a visit to Shanghai with then British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in early 2026, she called Chinese "the language of the future," adding that learning Mandarin Chinese alongside English provides an interesting mental workout.

Fact two: 210 million people are learning Chinese globally

China's Center for Language Education and Cooperation reported in May that global Chinese learners had reached 210 million.

According to the global language database Ethnologue, Mandarin Chinese had 1.18 billion speakers worldwide in 2025, including 990 million native speakers and 194 million second-language speakers, cementing its place as a global language second only to English.

Mastering Mandarin isn't for the faint of heart, especially for those unfamiliar with Chinese characters and pinyin (phonetic transcription). But learners worldwide are putting in the work.

Proof of that is everywhere. The global scale of paid Chinese language proficiency tests (HSK) exploded 21-fold between 2004 and 2024. Annual participation reached 810,000 in 2025, bringing the cumulative number of test-takers to more than 8.5 million by the end of the year.

Fact three: Mandarin is Duolingo's fastest-growing language in 12 countries

Duolingo's 2025 Language Report ranked Mandarin as the eighth most popular language on the platform worldwide.

Its appeal is growing across South America, Asia and Europe. In 12 countries, Mandarin was the fastest-growing language on the app in 2025, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Thailand and Türkiye.

It also claimed the spot as the second-fastest-growing language on Duolingo in the United States.

Fact four: Mandarin is making its way into classrooms worldwide

From the Middle East to Europe and the Americas, Mandarin is increasingly finding a home in the curriculum.

In the Middle East, data released by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Education in April 2025 showed that 174 public middle schools had introduced Mandarin courses. The country aims to have more than 600,000 middle and high school students learning the language by 2030.

In the UK, parliamentary data from July 2026 showed that 31% of state-funded secondary schools in England had at least one student taking GCSE Chinese in 2025. (GCSEs are standard academic qualifications taken by students in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.)

In the United States, a 2026 report by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) found that Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese, was taught in 6% of public high schools that offered foreign language courses.