According to Euronews, Spanish learning in China increased by 12.6% between 2023 and 2025, according to the Cervantes Institute. However, this post-pandemic boom is generating a shortage of teachers. Luis García Montero, the Institute’s director, emphasized in Beijing the urgency of training more teachers during the presentation of the “Spanish in the World Report 2026”, an event that celebrated the Chinese institution’s twentieth anniversary.

China has approximately 98,000 potential Hispanophones, with the language present in 31 cities and almost 98% of universities offering Hispanic Philology. García Montero expressed concern about the commercial orientation of teaching, fearing that philology might lose importance in favor of sectors like business and engineering, at the expense of humanities.

Globally, Spanish is spoken by 640 million users, with a growth of 1.5% in the last year, making it the third most spoken language in the world with over 520 million native speakers. The report highlights its relevance in migratory flows and a strong digital presence, ranking as the second most used language on websites.

The report highlighted geographical disparities, with a 46% decrease in students in Brazil and robust growth in Africa. Yang Ming, vice-president of SISU, noted that the Chinese market requires professionals with multidisciplinary skills, combining the language with law, accounting, or business management, going beyond mere translation, despite the 55,000 graduates.