2QUESTION 2 OF 3
Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
107,000,000
people
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
Wang is a Chinese name, so start with China, about 1.4 billion people. Chinese surnames are famously concentrated, a small handful cover most of the country. What share does the single most common one hold? Call it 1 in 15.
- China's population
- 1,400,000,000
- Share named Wang
- × 1/15
- 1.4B ÷ 15
- ≈ 93,000,000
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- Bearers in China (Forebears)
- 105,459,482
- China's share of the world total
- 99%
- 105.5M ÷ 0.99
- ≈ 107,000,000
Reference cited by Fermi: Forebears.io surname index (Wang: 107,002,577 worldwide, ranked 1st; 105,459,482 of them in China)
How close was your guess?
Your comparison will appear here.
Compare by ratio: divide the larger number by the smaller one. The closer to 1×, the better.