E-ging Solutions is a world-leading Shanghai translation company with specialties in Spanish translation.

According to a new study published by the prestigious Instituto Cervantes, the United States has recently cemented itself as the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, following Mexico. This puts the U.S. ahead of Colombia, where there are 48 million speakers, and Spain, where there are 46 million with a mastery of the language.

There are 41 million native Spanish speakers in the U.S., with 11 million more who are bilingual, for a total of 52 million people who have a command of the Spanish language. Spanish speakers are most prevalent in the states of California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Furthermore, the Spanish language is the most widely spoken of the Romance languages — a family of Indo-European languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin and includes French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian — both in terms of the number of speakers and the number of countries in which it is the dominant language.

Across the globe, there are an estimated 400 million Spanish speakers in total. But contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as a single spoken Spanish: different dialects have evolved in different regions of the world where Spanish is spoken. Not only is the Spanish-speaking community a robust one, but it is growing exponentially, making Spanish a highly desirable language into which you will want to translate your documents.

The Spanish-speaking population is expanding the world over, but we are feeling that shift most potently in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Office, the United States will have 138 million Spanish speakers by 2050, which will make it the biggest Spanish-speaking nation on Earth, surpassing even Mexico. It will mean that a third of Americans will speak Spanish as their primary language.

Spanish-speaking Hispanics comprise the largest minority in the United States, making Spanish an obvious choice for translation services. It is a community that buys products and services, offering businesses and other organizations a robust growth opportunity. This is particularly true for businesses in the Southwest, where Spanish-speaking communities are more prevalent.

Native Spanish-speakers are not only a strong consumer market, but they also represent a key demographic group for national, state, and local politics. It’s no secret that in the U.S., the Hispanic vote can shift the results of an important election. So it makes sense not only for business owners to translate into Spanish, but for political entities to do so as well.

Spanish speakers aren’t going anywhere: in fact, it seems that they will only continue to grow in number. Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world, next to Chinese and English, but it is primed to make a major impact worldwide in the coming decades. Regardless of whether you’re interested in English to Spanish translation for business purposes, political purposes, or socio-economic purposes, it is always a solid choice.