ESPANOL continues to be the second mother tongue on the planet with approx 500 million people is, 6.2% of the world’s population, according to the Cervantes Institute.
“Yes the second language of the planet Mandarin Chinese, and will continue to grow over the next five decades,” the Institute said.
“This and many other updated data is a reason for pride, but it does not mean complacency,” he said. Luis García Montero director of Cervantes during the presentation of the yearbook “Spanish in the World 2023”.
she ESPANOL This is a “great legacy”, but we must take into account the changing demographic trends in the world, which will decrease in Latin America and increase in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of this, we must promote teaching it as a foreign language and as a heritage language of the millions of descendants of Spaniards who live in other countries, said García Montero.
Almost 500 million people (499,947,796) with Spanish as their mother tongue (last year they exceeded 496 million), representing 6.2% of the world’s population).
The total number of potential users is 600 million (599,405,122) when people with native skills are added to those with limited skills (76,422,128) and second or foreign language learners (23,035,198).
About Spanish speakers in Europe
García Montero emphasizes that there are 76 million Europeans who can speak Spanish: 45 million in Spain, 25 who speak it as a foreign language, and 6 million students until it becomes the second choice foreign language for students.
