ALMOST double the number of people who already speak Scots Gaelic in Scotland have signed up to learn the language on Duolingo.

The free online language-learning tool launched its new course on St Andrew’s Day and saw more than 65,000 sign up within five days of launch – more people than actually speak the language in Scotland.

And now, just more than a month after its release, Duolingo has revealed that its sign up numbers have reached more than 127,000.

READ MORE: Scottish Gaelic Duolingo ‘has more users than people who speak language’

According to the 2011 UK census, 57,375 of Scots say they can speak Gaelic, with the University of Edinburgh estimating that around 5500 people are learning the language on other platforms.

Colin Watkins, Duolingo’s country manager in the UK, said: “To have more people learning on Duolingo in under a week than can speak the language or are currently learning elsewhere is amazing.

“It’s testament to how easy, fun and effective learning on Duolingo can be whether it’s learning Scottish Gaelic or Spanish, Latin or Japanese.”