The importance of the Spanish language in both cultural and economic terms is very high. In the world there are almost 400 million Spanish speakers making it the third language after Mandarin Chinese and English. It is one of the official languages of the European Union, Mercosur, UNESCO, the UN and the Red Cross.

The knowledge of Spanish offers a wide range of opportunities to do business or to travel because it is an official language in more than 20 countries around the world. Also in the United States there is a community of 35 million Spanish speakers, which means more than 20% of its population.

More than 46 million people are studying Spanish throughout the world. Around 40 million Spanish speakers regularly use the Internet making it the 5th most popular language behind German, Japanese, Chinese, and especially English. As for the presence in the media on the web Spanish ranks second behind English.