Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, Vice President of Spain, recently recalled the roots and history of the Spanish language. She noted the landmarks and influencers of the language that helped to grow Spanish around the world. Such ventures include the expeditions of Christopher Columbus and the philosophy of writers like Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel García Márquez. Through this introduction she outlined fundamental aspects of Spanish that are key to understanding the growth of the language today.

• Spanish is the first language of 470 million people around the world.
• Forty-five of these 470 million people do not reside in a country where Spanish is the official language as there are only 21 countries who have Spanish as the official  language.
• Forty-one million Americans are Spanish native speakers.
• Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the world and currently Spanish speakers represent 7.9% of the total population. This means that in the next generation one in ten people in the world will speak Spanish.
• Spanish is the third language most used on the internet, with a total of 8% of users.
• The use of Spanish in the internet grew more than 1,000% between 2000 and 2013.
• There are approximately 20-25 million people around the world that study Spanish
• The number of American university students enrolled in Spanish courses exceeds the total students enrolled in other languages.
• In 2050, the United States will be the first Spanish-speaking country in the world.
• An average of 185,000 Spanish books per year are produced throughout Spanish-speaking countries.