"How much X is in Y?" vs "How much X is there in Y?"

First:

How much money is there in a bank?

Second:

How much money is in a bank?

Honestly, both of them are the same for me, but who knows.. I am not a native speaker.

Solution 1:

Although the two sentences have little, if any, difference in meaning, there are contexts where one variant is more natural than the other. For example.

A: There are 10 boxes in the room. Some of them are on the table.

B: How many boxes are on the table?

Here, "How many boxes are there on the table" would be slightly awkward.

On the other hand, consider the following dialog:

A: There's virtually no room on my table.

B: What item takes up most space?

A: Books

B: How many books are there on your table?

Here, "How many books are on your table" would be slightly awkward.

I think that How many books are on your table? has a vague implication of "We know that some of the books are on the table. The question is how many are, and where are the rest.". "How many books are there on the table" focuses more on the items on the table and the main question is "How many of these items are books?".