For the first time in history the number of Spanish speakers in the world has exceeded 600 million.
This milestone, detailed in the latest report Spanish in the World 2024 by the Instituto Cervantes, underscores the growing influence of the Spanish language.
The Instituto Cervantes is a global institution dedicated to promoting the teaching, study, and use of Spanish.
The report revealed that as of November 2024 there are 600,607,806 Spanish speakers globally, representing 7.5% of the world’s population.
This figure maintains Spanish’s status as the world’s fourth most widely spoken language after English, Mandarin and Hindi, respectively.
Among the 600 million speakers there are 499 million native speakers which confirms that Spanish remains the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the world after Mandarin and ahead of English, Arabic, Hindi, Russian and French.
Luis García Montero, director of the Instituto Cervantes, described the findings as “a source of pride.”
“We have many challenges ahead, but we can take satisfaction in the cultural strength of Spanish,” García Montero added.
“It has become a beacon of democratic values in an era marked by reactionary and violent ideologies.”
He also highlighted the economic significance of the language with Spanish-speaking countries contributing more than 6% to the global GDP.
It comes as a separate study discovered that Spanish was the most valuable language to learn for English speakers worldwide.
A missing 17 million speakers?
The Cervantes report found 24 million of the world’s Spanish speakers are made up of people studying the Spanish language.
It’s the fastest-growing body of Spanish speakers worldwide, growing at 2% per year.
The majority of students are enrolled in public education such as primary and secondary schools in countries like the US, Canada, Australia and European nations such as France and UK.
But a recent analysis from Speakeasy BCN, a leading Spanish language school in Barcelona, revealed there could be more than 600 million Spanish speakers globally.
The analysis noted that 21.9% of tourists visiting Spain state “practising languages” as the reason for their visit.
With over 85 million tourists visiting Spain in 2023 this could mean an additional population of at least 17 million Spanish speakers in the world.
In other words, there could be millions more people who aren’t studying Spanish, aren’t officially registered as being native or bilingual Spanish-speaking, but have conversational ability in Spanish.
Marielle Poorte, the Marketing Directory at Speakeasy BCN, told the Olive Press that their Intensive Spanish Courses are the “most popular” at the school.
“The majority of enquiries are for our shorter classes, sometimes as little as 4-6 weeks, because these don’t require the Spanish student visa.
“So what happens to the thousands of people who take an intensive course, or conversational course, or private class? The year after they study at an accredited school like ours, they’re no longer recorded as being ‘Spanish speakers’ according to the Cervantes study.”
She said it was “exciting” to think that there could “millions more” Spanish speakers across the world.
The recorded number of Hindi speakers is currently at 609 million.
Meaning that, if the full picture of Spanish speakers was known, it could place Spanish as the world’s third most widely spoken language after English and Mandarin.
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