Spanish (español) or Castilian (castellano) is an Iberian Romance language, and the fourth most-widely spoken language in the world according to some sources, while other sources list it as the second or third most spoken language. It is spoken as a first language by about 400 million people, or by 500 million including non-native speakers. Some assert that, after English, Spanish can now be considered the second most important language in the world (probably replacing even French), due to its increased usage in the United States, the high birth rate in most of the countries where it is official, the growing economies of the Spanish-speaking world, its influence on the global music market, the importance of its literature, and simply due to the broad number of areas on the Earth's surface where the language is spoken.

Source of picture: www.pixelquelle.de

Country, region or city descriptions on top of the page are licensed under 
the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia.