* No official census: There's no universally accepted census or standardized data collection across the Kurdish regions.
* Dispersed population: Kurdish speakers are spread across multiple countries, including Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Armenia.
* Political factors: The political situation in some of these countries makes it difficult to gather accurate data on language use.
Estimates vary widely:
* Ethnologue: Estimates around 30 million native speakers.
* Other sources: Range from 20 million to 40 million speakers.
It's important to note that these figures only include native speakers. Many Kurdish speakers also speak other languages, making the overall number of Kurdish speakers even higher.