SPANISH is no longer the world’s second native language after being overtaken by Hindi, with Mandarin Chinese remaining on top.
The Cervantes Institute in its annual ‘Spanish in the world’ study said that despite the change, Spanish speakers had risen by 30 million since last year- up 5%.
It means there are 630 million people speaking Spanish world wide.
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Despite dropping to being the third native language, it passed the 500 million mark for the first time, reaching 520 million.
Hindi overtook it with 528 million, according to estimates by Indian authorities.
Franciso Moreno, head of the Global Observatory of Spanish explained: “Spanish as a native language is no longer the second in demographic terms since India’s population growth is enormous.”
In fact the total percentage of growth of Spanish speakers with native proficiency since 2012 is a healthy 22% but the Cervantes Institute warns that their natural demographic evolution has been slowing down, while emigration to and between Spanish-speaking countries has increased.
The report points out the migrant nature of Spanish, since one in ten native speakers reside in non-Spanish-speaking countries, while the number of potential Spanish speakers outside Hispanic countries exceeds 120 million.
Meanwhile, the EU as a whole is a place of residence for more than 45 million Spanish speakers, apart from those who reside in Spain.
It is estimated that the native Spanish-speaking population in the world will reach its maximum in the 50s and 60s of the 21st century.
Regarding Spanish language students, who are mostly found in the United States, Brazil, and several European Union countries, the number of learners has grown by 1.5% between 2024 and 2025.
Based on current growth, those numbers could reach 100 million by the end of the century, but only if ‘the level of institutionalisation of teaching is adequate’.
As for the internet, the percentage of websites with Spanish content is the second highest in the world, but still way behind sites in English.
Regarding the situation of Spanish in the United States and the impact of the policies of the US President, Donald Trump, the Cervantes Institute says that although the declaration of English as the official language of the United States ‘does not have to affect the daily life of the collective and individual American life’, it can be ‘detrimental to social and linguistic rights achieved, inherited or acquired by the Hispanic population’.
During a presentation of the report in Madrid, Spain’s Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said it was a ‘complex’ moment and dialogue is more necessary than ever for international understanding.
During his speech, Albares referred to the official status of Spanish in the European Union and assured that promoting Spanish in the world, as the Cervantes Institute does with ‘so much excellence’, is a ‘cultural task of the first order’.
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