7.5% of the world’s population speaks Spanish, says the Cervantes Institute

Almost 600 million people, 7.5% of the population, speak Spanish in the world, the Cervantes Institute congratulated itself, which highlighted that it is the second language most used in social networks after English.

In total, there are 591 million people who currently speak Spanish, six million more than a year earlier, and of them 493 million as their mother tongue, detailed the 2021 report presented at the institution’s world headquarters in Madrid.

For another year, Spanish remained the world’s second native language after Mandarin Chinese, and the third by users after English and Chinese.

It is “a language that is in good health and deserves consideration and importance,” said the director of Cervantes, Luis García Montero, in the presentation.

“It is the second most used language on platforms such as YouTube or Netflix and (on social networks such as) Facebook or Instagram, behind English, but at a distance from other languages ​​such as Portuguese or French,” explained García Montero.

Globally on the internet, with 8% of all users, it is the third most used language, behind English and Mandarin Chinese.

García Montero highlighted the renewed prestige of Spanish in the United States, where “it was a language of the poor, secondary, and even the Spanish website was erased in the White House” under the presidency of Donald Trump.

“Today the importance of Spanish is clearly recognized, among other things because studies indicate that by 2060 more than 27% of the US population will be of Hispanic origin,” he said.

According to Cervantes projections, the Spanish-speaking community in the world will reach a peak in 2068, with more than 726 million people, after which it could begin to decrease due to “a decrease in the birth rate in Spanish-speaking countries”.