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Number of Characters in Use

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Number of Characters in Use

There are over 80,000 Chinese characters, but most of them are seldom used today. So how many Chinese characters do you need to know? For basic reading and writing of modern Chinese, you only need a few thousands. Here are the coverage rates of the most frequently used Chinese characters:

Tier of MFU Chinese Characters Coverage Rate
Most frequently used 500 characters: 72.1%
Most frequently used 1,000 characters: 90.0%
Most frequently used 2,500 characters: 98.0%
Most frequently used 3,500 characters: 99.5%