The Cervantes Institute reports that currently Spanish speakers are 7.6 percent of the world’s population, and are projected to reach 7.7 percent in 2050…//
The Spanish language is spoken by more than 557 million people in the world, 7.6 percent of the world population, and will reach 7.7 percent in 2050, the Cervantes Institute reports.
In presenting the yearbook “Spanish in the World 2018”, the director of the institution, Luis García Montero, highlighted the role of Spain and Mexico in the dissemination of the language, especially in the United States, where it grows as the main foreign language in universities.
It was detailed that 480 million have Spanish as their mother tongue, compared to 477.6 million in 2017, and it is the second language in the world in this category, behind Mandarin Chinese.
Those who have Spanish as a native domain, of limited competence and study it as a foreign language total 577 million people, compared to 572.6 million in 2017.
At present Spanish speakers are 7.6 percent of the world population, it is expected that in 2050 it will be 7.7 percent, but then it will begin to fall and in the year 2100 it will be 6.6 percent, due to the decrease of population in countries where it is the official language.
About teaching Spanish, 21 million people study it in different study plans in 107 countries, of which in the United States it is the most studied, while in the United Kingdom it is considered the most important for the future.
In the global economy, Spanish-speaking countries contribute 6.9 percent of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
It would also be the fourth most powerful language in the world behind English, French and Chinese, by measuring its influence on factors such as its dispersion and geographical spread, economic weight, transmitter of knowledge and use in world diplomacy.
Source: Agency
