Number of students learning Portuguese in Macau: 5,000+

The numbers come from an article in Portuguese here. Macau's small population makes this quite easy to put into perspective: the population of the city is 568,000 and Portuguese speakers (people that speak Portuguese at home) are said to make up 0.6% of the population, so about 3400 people. The article is full of numbers from various language programs that on the whole confuse me, but looks like 5000+ students is about right. These are just some of them.

More than 5,000 students in Macau are currently learning Portuguese as a regular or extracurricular subject in local schools, according to data provided by the Education and Youth Services to the agency Lusa. In the current year, a total of 2,144 students through nine official schools in Macau have Portuguese integrated into the curriculum. Another 1,641 students attend Portuguese language courses as a regular discipline or suplement in 16 private schools, taught in Chinese or English, while 520 students go to two special schools where education is given in Portuguese: the Escola Portuguesa de Macau and o Jardim de Infância D. José da Costa Nunes.

The Escola Portuguese also offers Portuguese language course in three levels to 158 students with other mother tongues.

Three secondary schools have 582 students studying Portuguese under funding for the creation of Portuguese language courses at schools, with a duration of at least three years.

The Portuguese language is also part of the offering of the special education program given by the Macau government, with 77 courses of Portuguese 'validated' by the Education and Youth Services agency with 998 graduates in 2012.