A new report about the Spanish language, by Instituto Cervantes (a nonprofit in Spain), has been getting a lot of attention lately. It says:
- In 2015, almost 470 million people spoke Spanish as their native language.
- There are almost 559 million people learning Spanish or who speak it as a non-native language.
- Spanish is the second most commonly spoken native language in the world. (after Mandarin Chinese), and the second most spoken language in terms of native and non-native speakers.
- The percentage of people who speak Spanish in the world is growning, while the number of people who speak English and Mandarin Chinese is decreasing.
- In 2015, 6.7% of the world is Spanish-speaking. It is estimated that by 2030, 7.5% of the world will speak Spanish, and within three to four generations, 10% of the world will understand Spanish.
- There are more than 21 million students in the world studying Spanish as a foreign language, and Spanish is the most studied language in the United States.
- Spanish is the third most used language on the Internet.
- There are 53 million Hispanics in the United States. This means the United States has the second largest population of Hispanics in the world, after Mexico.
- In 2050 the United States will have the largest Spanish-speaking population of any country in the world.