Top languages in order of number of first language speakers
(3th Edition of the Ethnologue, 1996)
Teochew dialect is spoken by more than 10 millions of Teochews, and rank 21 in the top 100 languages spoken by population, when grouped in the Min-nan dialect.
| Rank | Language Name | Primary Country | Population |
| 1 | CHINESE, MANDARIN | China | 885,000,000 |
| 2 | SPANISH | Spain | 332,000,000 |
| 3 | ENGLISH | United Kingdom | 322,000,000 |
| 4 | BENGALI | Bangladesh | 189,000,000 |
| 5 | HINDI | India | 182,000,000 |
| 6 | PORTUGUESE | Portugal | 170,000,000 |
| 7 | RUSSIAN | Russia | 170,000,000 |
| 8 | JAPANESE | Japan | 125,000,000 |
| 9 | GERMAN, STANDARD | Germany | 98,000,000 |
| 10 | CHINESE, WU | China | 77,175,000 |
| 11 | JAVANESE | Indonesia, Java, Bali | 75,500,800 |
| 12 | KOREAN | Korea, South | 75,000,000 |
| 13 | FRENCH | France | 72,000,000 |
| 14 | VIETNAMESE | Viet Nam | 67,662,000 |
| 15 | TELUGU | India | 66,350,000 |
| 16 | CHINESE, YUE (Cantonese) | China | 66,000,000 |
| 17 | MARATHI | India | 64,783,000 |
| 18 | TAMIL | India | 63,075,000 |
| 19 | TURKISH | Turkey | 59,000,000 |
| 20 | URDU | Pakistan | 58,000,000 |
| 21 | CHINESE, MIN NAN (including CHAOZHOU) | China | 49,000,000 |