According to a report, America is already the second most Spanish speaking country, surpassing Colombia
Madrid (EFE) – According to the report “Spanish: A Living Language 2024”, the United States is already the second most Spanish-speaking country after Mexico.
This report by Professor David Fernandez of the University of Alcalá in Spain highlights that the United States, with more than 57.4 million Spanish speakers, has become the second country with the most speakers, surpassing Colombia with about 52.6 million. Has gone.
About 132 million in Mexico, more than 48 in Spain, about 47 in Argentina, 34 each in Venezuela and Peru, 20 in Chile, 17 each in Ecuador and Guatemala, 12 in Bolivia, about a case each in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. 11, about 10 in Honduras, more than 7 from both Paraguay and Nicaragua, more than 6 from El Salvador, about 5 from Costa Rica, about 4.5 from Panama, more than 3 from Uruguay and Puerto Rico and about 1.6 from Equatorial Guinea.
These data count those who master it as a native language, as well as those who have limited ability due to factors such as sharing it with other languages, including indigenous languages. In the case of migrants coming to countries like, or have learned it. Spain.
Fernández, a Doctor of Spanish Language and Literature, worked for fifteen years on the report “Spanish in the World”, published annually by the Cervantes Institute, a Spanish public entity dedicated to the international dissemination of this language.
The work of the Cervantes Institute, presented this Wednesday in Madrid, highlights that for the first time the number of Spanish speakers has exceeded 600 million.
This expert’s study puts the figure at around 590 million, “It is the second most relevant language in the world in terms of the number of native speakers and the fourth if we include those who know it as a second or foreign language.” ”
As Fernández details, 7.2 percent of the planet’s inhabitants can currently communicate in Spanish with varying degrees of proficiency.
The difference between the two works is explained by the fact that the professor has introduced some changes in indicators such as the percentage of native and non-native speakers based on studies on the importance of language in the United States and the European Union. Method of counting Spanish students.
As for the future of this language, its teaching has accelerated in Europe, gradually displacing French as a second foreign language at almost all educational levels.
Brazil, on the other hand, alleges the effects of eliminating the mandatory offering of the Spanish language in education.
He warned that higher education in the United States has seen a significant decline in the number of Spanish students, which may also occur at other educational levels.
Furthermore, the UN’s new population perspective controls the expected growth of potential users of Spanish by the end of the century, while pushing back the date on which it will reach its maximum: with more than 682 million speakers in 2066. .
“From then until the end of the century the Spanish-speaking community will begin a gradual decline, which will only be partially compensated for by the increase in the number of non-native Spanish speakers in the US,” he insists, By 2100 it will fall to 6.3. The percentage of the world’s population that speaks Spanish.