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According to the latest annual report of the Spanish Instituto Cervantes, published in November 2025, the number of Spanish speakers worldwide has reached 636 millions.
The report is titled El Español en el Mundo, discovered that people learning Spanish as a foreign language is the fastest-growing group – expanding by 79% in the last decade.
If this trend continues, the report predicts one third of non-Hispanics will be Spanish speakers in the near future.
According to the most recent figures, there are 92,000,000 people who speak Spanish as their second or third languages. They learned Spanish either through formal education or informal education.
In addition, 24.6 million people are actively learning Spanish around the world.
The 636 millions total includes these groups, plus the 519 native Spanish speakers.
Geographically, Spanish language learners are concentrated in some top economies around the world. The report states that more than 78% all Spanish language learners are located in the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and Brazil.
Today:
- Nine million Americans are now learning Spanish
- 4 million in Brazil
- France: 3.6 millions in France
- Two million in the United Kingdom
- 970,000 in Italy
Thanks to the popularity of Spanish as a foreign language in EU-27 countries (not including Spain), there are now 45.7 million Spanish speakers in the bloc – a figure almost level with Spain’s population of 49 million.
According to the current growth rate, the report estimates that 200 million people could speak Spanish as a second or foreign language by the turn of the century.
The report states that bilingualism in Spanish and English is now the “most promising” language combination for the future. It also notes that native speakers of the two languages total more than 1 billion people worldwide.
The two languages are official or coofficial in more than 75 countries. This gives them access to the most influential markets and professional networks, as well as cultural ecosystems.
Spanish is not only growing in terms of its demography but also culturally and digitally.
Although Spanish remains the fourth-largest language by number of native speakers – after Mandarin, Hindi and English – it is already the second most-used language online, behind only English.
This is a reflection of the growing influence that Spanish has in technology, commerce and entertainment.
Yasmin Minusculi is the Operations Manager for Spanish Language School. Speakeasy BCN In central Barcelona, the demand for Spanish classes has grown along with a change in student profile.
She said, “I’ve never seen such a strong interest in Spanish language learning after eight years of working at Speakeasy BCN.”
It’s interesting to see the age group shift. More students are in their mid-to-late 20s to late 40s studying Spanish for career advancement.
Companies are more interested in multilingual talent than ever before, and Spanish is a strategic asset.
She gives as an example Luka Ili? a Serbian student who has moved to Barcelona in order to work at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre as an atmospheric scientist.
Luka: “I wanted to know more about the culture of the country and the people around me, so I decided to study Spanish.”
Another example would be Alicia, a Chinese-speaking student.
She said, “I came here to earn my Master’s Degree.”
“When talking about my reasons to learn Spanish, my first would be that learning Spanish will help me find a job…as Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.”
Yasmin explained that students in their 20s would often come to the school for a “year overseas” and study Spanish. They wanted the experience of living in another country.
It’s not just about enjoying Barcelona and its culture. “Students are discovering that Spanish is a global language, and opens up doors for them personally.”
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