The 2017 report from the Instituto Cervantes, “Spanish: a living language” has recently been published. This report was written by David Fernández Vítores and coordinated from the Dirección Académica of the Instituto Cervantes. The structure of the report is the usual one for this type of publication.
Firstly, statistics for Spanish throughout the world are given. The second chapter deals with Spanish as a Foreign Language and its position in various different educational systems. In the third chapter an overall picture of Spanish as an economic asset is discussed and this leads to a section on Spanish and the internet and social networks. The report ends with a chapter on Spanish in science and culture and a bibliography.
The statistics given in the report indicate that “Spanish is the second most widely spoken native language after Mandarin and also the second most widely spoken language on a global count of native proficiency + limited competence + students of Spanish”.
An approximate calculation can also be made in global figures of twenty-one million students choosing Spanish for career purposes. This places Spanish in direct competition with French and Mandarin as the second most widely studied language. It is striking that interest in learning Spanish is especially apparent in the two main English speaking countries – the United States and the United Kingdom.
Anyone wishing to see the entire report can download a PDF version with with this link.