AUDAZ REVISTA
Second?
Is Spanish the second most spoken language on Earth? Not any more, by the most cited count.
01 / 08
2023
Instituto Cervantes called Spanish the second mother tongue in the world, after Mandarin.
That report is where the famous line comes from.
02 / 08
Third
Its 2025 yearbook puts Spanish third by native speakers, behind Mandarin and Hindi.
About 990 million, 603 million and 519 million.
03 / 08
Fourth
Count everyone who can speak it, and Spanish is fourth.
English, Mandarin and Hindi come first.
04 / 08
Hindi
Spanish did not shrink. The 2025 yearbook counts Hindi from India's 2011 census, projected to 2025.
Spanish still has more native speakers than English.
05 / 08
Editors
We measured ten big Wikipedia editions. Spanish had the second most active editors, after English.
Our count, 1 October 2026.
06 / 08
Clásicos
Project Gutenberg tags about 4.6 times as many books French as Spanish.
Do not wait for free classics. Budget for a few real books.
07 / 08
Learners
About 24.6 million people study Spanish as a foreign language.
In the US, 76% of school pupils who take a foreign language choose Spanish.
08 / 08
21
Spanish is the majority native language of 21 countries, on three continents.
Third or fourth, it is still enormous.
Tap for the full numbers, our reading count and what it means for you.