where does spanish rank in terms of the number of native speakers
Spanish language It is estimated that more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language, which qualifies it as second on the lists of languages by number of native speakers.[22] Instituto Cervantes claims that there are an estimated 477 million Spanish speakers with native competence and 572 million Spanish speakers as a first or second language—including speakers with limited competence—and more than 21 million students of Spanish as a foreign language.[23]
Languages of the United States Many languages are spoken, or historically have been spoken, in the United States. Today over 350 languages are used by the U.S. population.[3][4] The most commonly used language is English (specifically, American English), which is the de facto national language of the United States. Since the 1965 Immigration Act, Spanish is the second most common language in the country. The United States does not have an official language, but 32 state governments out of 50 have declared English to be one, or the only, official language. The government of Louisiana offers services and most documents in both English and French, as does New Mexico in English and Spanish. The government of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, operates almost entirely in Spanish, even though its official languages are Spanish and English. There are many languages indigenous to North America or to U.S. states or holdings in the Pacific region. Hawaiian, although having few native speakers, is an official language along with English of the state of Hawaii. Alaska officializes English and twenty native languages.