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Study: U.S. now has more Spanish speakers than Spain

By Danielle Haynes

MADRID, June 30 (UPI) -- The United States has 52.6 million native Spanish speakers, more than Spain and Colombia and only fewer than the No. 1 Spanish-speaking country, Mexico.

A report from Spanish language organization Instituto Cervantes said there are 41 native Spanish speakers in the United States and another 11.6 million who are bilingual. In Mexico, there are 121 million speakers, while there are 48 million on Colombia and 46 million in Spain.

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Some 559 million people speak the language worldwide.

Based on information from the U.S. Census, there will be an estimated 128 million Spanish speakers in the United States by 2050, surpassing Mexico to become the No. 1 Spanish-speaking country in the world.

Meanwhile, the report -- titled "Spanish, a living language" -- estimates 21 people worldwide are learning to speak Spanish, with the United States leading the pack with 7.8 million students of the language. Brazil and France are second and third.

Earlier this year a study of the emotional connotations of the world's most commonly used words among the 10 most popular languages found that Spanish is the world's happiest language.

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Instituto Cervantes was created in 1991 and promotes the learning of Spanish in non-native Spanish-speaking countries.

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