Whether "0" is a natural number is still controversial internationally. China's current nine-year compulsory education textbooks and senior high school textbooks (for trial revision) all call the non-negative integer set natural number set. It is clearly pointed out that 0 is also an element of natural number set.

So the smallest natural number is 0.

Extended data:

Abroad, textbooks in some countries count 0 as a natural number. This is an artificial rule. In order to implement the international standards formulated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), China defines natural number set as containing element 0, and also to integrate with international standards as soon as possible.

0 is neither positive nor negative, but a number between positive and negative. When a certain number x is greater than 0 (that is, X>0), it is called a positive number; On the other hand, when x is less than 0 (that is, x

References:

Natural Numbers-Baidu Encyclopedia