By 2060, the U.S. will be the country with the second largest number of Spanish speakers, behind Mexico.

In 2060, almost five and a half centuries after the arrival of Juan Ponce de Leon in what is now Florida, The United States will be the country with the second largest number of Spanish speakers, a study released Friday indicated by the Hispanic Council.

On the occasion of Spanish Language Day, which is celebrated this Sunday, the Hispanic Council cited figures from the Instituto Cervantes to point out that. 57 million people speak the language in the United States.

According to the Census, Hispanics in the United States make up almost 19% of the population. of the population and, according to the report, by 2060, 27.5% of the U.S. population will be of Hispanic origin.

With more than eight million students, it is the country with the highest number of students of Spanish

“In less than four decades, the United States will be the second country in the world with the largest number of Spanish speakers, behind only Mexico“said the Madrid-based Hispanic Council.

“The Hispanic community is not homogeneousnor is its relationship to Spanish,” he added. “English is the most widely spoken language throughout the United States.”

However, seven out of ten Hispanics use Spanish to communicate in the home environment, which “demonstrates that Spanish is a living language that Hispanics use for cultural ties and professional projection”.

According to the Hispanic Council, there are 624 active Spanish-language media outlets in the U.S. and 91% of high schools offer classes in Spanish. With more than eight million students, the U.S. has the largest number of Spanish language learners.

California’s Hispanic population

The seed of the Castilian language was planted in 1513 by the Spaniard Ponce de León, a native of Valladolid, and there are now more Spanish speakers in the United States than in Spain, the report added.

Ten states, four territories, and dozens of counties and municipalities have Spanish names, the result of the Spanish colonial presence for more than 300 years.

The Hispanic Council stated that 26% of all Spanish speakers in the United States are in California, where the Hispanic population is close to 40% of the total, second only to New Mexico, where the Hispanic community represents almost half of the total population.