Spanish is the first Western language by number of native speakers

Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. According to the Nationalencyklopedin (NE), Spanish is now the second world language by number of native speakers, making up 6.15 % of the planet’s population.1

Rank	Language	Native speakers (millions)	%  of world population
1	Mandarin 官話/官话	955	14.4 %
2	Spanish Español/Castellano	470	6.15 %
3	English	360	5.43 %
4	Hindi हिन्दी	310	4.70 %
5	Arabic العربية	295	4.43 %
6	Portuguese Português	215	3.27 %
7	Bengali	205	3.11 %
8	Russian Русский	155	2.33 %
9	Japanese 日本語й	125	1.90 %
10	Punjabi ਪੰਜਾਬੀ پنجابى	102	1.44 %

 

Projections for the Spanish language

Projections for the next half century suggest that Spanish will continue to grow at a faster pace than any other major European language.2

	% variation 1996-2050	Projection – European languages
Arabic	+ 140
Bengali	+ 83
Hindi/Urdu	+ 76
Malay	+ 70
Spanish	+ 60
Portuguese	+ 50
English	+ 37
Chinese	+ 24
French	+ 9
German	– 11
Japanese	– 12
Russian	– 15

 

Continue reading…

• Spanish as an official language
• World Spanish speaking countries
• Spanish: the third largest language online

 

Footnotes