Spanish in the world: a brief introduction

There are more than 450 million native Spanish speakers in the world which makes it the second language with more native speakers across the globe, just after Chinese. This can give you an idea of the potential that translating your marketing materials into Spanish could have.

Highly popular in the United States

Not only is it the official language in 21 countries but it is also widely spoken in the United States, where the number of Spanish speakers has been continuously growing in recent years. Right now there are more than 43 million people who speak Spanish as their first language there which means 13% of the country's population. To this, we need to add another 12 million bilingual English/Spanish speakers. According to some experts' predictions, by the year 2050 the number of Spanish speakers will be approximately 530 million of which 100 million will be US residents.

Spanish as a second language

It is expected that Spanish will only grow in importance within the next years, being one of the most popular languages to learn as a second language nowadays. In countries like the UK where traditionally French or German were the preferred options, Spanish has become the most popular choice with more than 500,000 learners. One thing is for sure: Spanish is here to stay.