7.5 percent of the world’s population already speaks Spanish, with a total of 591 million potential users of this language and an increase of six million compared to 2020, while the number of native Spanish speakers continues to grow to 493 million people.
These are some of the data reflected in the yearbook "Spanish in the world 2021", presented this Thursday at the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid, an institution that in its 30 years of existence has seen the number of Spanish speakers increase by 70% worldwide.
The number of native Spanish speakers has grown by four million people in one year, which, together with those with limited Spanish proficiency and the 24 million students who speak it as a foreign language, places potential users at 591 million persons.
Spanish remains the second mother tongue in the world by number of speakers, after Mandarin Chinese, according to the study included in the yearbook "Spanish: a living language", made by David Fernández Vítores.
It is also the third language in a global tally of speakers (including those with native proficiency, limited proficiency, and students), after English and Mandarin Chinese.
During the presentation of the yearbook, the director of Cervantes, Luis García Montero, stressed the importance of preserving "pan-hispanic consciousness" of Spanish and avoid "imperialist wars" that would result in the "fracture" from language.
He has also highlighted the consolidation of Spanish in the United States after a few years – in reference to Trump’s mandate – in which "they wanted to recover the tradition of the language of the poor and secondary" and "Spanish was deleted from the White House website".
"Studies indicate in 2060 more than 27% of the US population will be of Hispanic origin – it would make the United States the second Spanish-speaking country in the world after Mexico – and today this community would in itself make up the eighth economy in the world", has explained.
The yearbook published this year, a special edition for the 30th anniversary of the institution, present in 45 countries, includes a presentation by the King of Spain, Felipe VI and an article by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez.
"The role of Cervantes in these three decades reveals its importance as an instrument of public diplomacy", says the King in the yearbook, while Sánchez highlights how the institution has become "the international benchmark in the teaching of Spanish".
And it is that since 2010 (when the report began "Spanish: a living language"), the number of Spanish students counted by the Instituto Cervantes has doubled, from 11.3 million to more than 24.
Spanish is disputed with French and Mandarin Chinese for second place as the most studied language as a second language. And while in the United States, Spanish is by far the most studied language at all levels of education, in the European Union, English is the most studied language, followed by French.
Spanish competes with German for third place but the proportion of students of Spanish in primary and secondary education has increased steadily in recent years, while that of French and German has decreased.
In addition, in the United Kingdom, Brexit consolidates the advance of Spanish in such a way that its study has already surpassed French in high school and the same is expected to happen in the other educational stages this decade.
81 percent of Spanish students in the world are divided between the United States, the European Union and Brazil, although in Sub-Saharan Africa it grows significantly, especially in countries where French is an official or co-official language, such as Ivory Coast ( with 566,178 students), Benin (412,515), Senegal (356,000), Cameroon (193,018), Gabon (167,410) or Equatorial Guinea (128,895).
Long-term forecasts reflect how the number of Spanish speakers will continue to grow in the next five decades, although their relative weight will progressively decrease between now and the end of the century.
In this sense, García Montero has stressed that the great challenge ahead is to strengthen Spanish in the field of artificial intelligence since the digital revolution will be "deeper and deeper".
"Spanish is the language of Cervantes but also of Ramón y Cajal, we have a task ahead in the field of science and technology", has warned.
Regarding the importance of Spanish in the economy, science and the Internet, the yearbook emphasizes that the global Spanish-speaking community has a joint purchasing power of approximately 9% of world GDP and that, after English, Spanish is the second language in which more documents of a scientific nature are published.
Spanish is the third most used language on the internet after English and Chinese, in such a way that 7.9% of internet users communicate in Spanish and it is the second most used language on digital platforms and social networks such as YouTube. Facebook, Wikipedia or Instagram, only behind English.
On the other hand, García Montero has clarified that in the General State Budgets presented this Wednesday by the Spanish Government, the state allocation to Cervantes increases from 126 to 135 million euros (from 146 to 157 million dollars).
Cervantes spending in 2022 will be aimed at strengthening the presence in sub-Saharan Africa, starting the new center in Los Angeles and opening another one in Seoul, García Montero has advanced.
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