For decades, there was not an accurate number of Cherokee speakers. The 16,000 estimate came from a survey done back in the 1960s, and for decades it was never updated. Back in the early 2000s, an informal phone survey was done by Cherokee Nation in which about 10,000 people self identified as Cherokee speakers, but there was no way to confirm level of fluency. So starting last year, the Cherokee Language Program at Cherokee Nation started a project to identify all of our first language Cherokee speakers. So far, we have identified around 2,100 first language speakers left at the moment, and all are verified as fluent first language Cherokee speakers. That includes all three federally recognized tribes: Cherokee Nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. This number is the most recent, and most accurate, count. We are continually losing speakers as they pass away.

Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program (CLMAP) has graduated about 10 speakers, with 16 more in the coming year.

Spoken by up to 10,000 of the more than 122,000 members of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, by about 1,000 of the approximately 10,000 members of the Eastern Band of Cherokees in North Carolina, and by an undetermined — but relatively high — percentage of the 7500 members of the United Keetoowah Band of Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma: 10,000 of the 122,000 member.
Eastern Band of Cherokees in North Carolina: 1000 of the 10,000.
United Keetoowah Band of Oklahoma and Arkansas: by a high percentage of 7500 members (Golla 2007).

In addition, an undetermined, but relatively high, percentage of the 7500 members of the United Keetoowah Band of Oklahoma and Arkansas are speakers of the Oklahoma variety.

Data for the number of native speakers comes from the 2000 census. There are 130 monolinguals. "14,000 on Oklahoma rolls (1986 D. Feeling), 1,000 in North Carolina (1997 R. Sabino)." Data for the ethnic population is from the 1990 census, and includes "70,000 on Oklahoma rolls (1986 D. Feeling), 9,800 in Eastern Band (1997 R. Sabino)."