We often learn foreign languages because we want to increase our opportunities in life, in particular, our business and career opportunities. Whether you are looking to work for a large global corporation, work abroad, or just increase your salary a little bit, the Spanish language is one of the most economically valuable languages out there.
Spanish is the world’s second language by the number of native speakers (around 470 million) and it is the official language of 20 countries. After English and Chinese, it is the third most widely used language on the Internet.
Knowledge of the Spanish language, indeed, opens up the world to you: it gives you access to information and allows you to travel the world. Spanish also has really impressive economic value, for a number of reasons.
Economic factors
Assessing the value of a language can be quite hard as there are multiple factors involved that are interconnected and also ever-changing. However, just by looking at some of the economic factors associated with the Spanish language, one can clearly see its high economic value.
Here are a few examples:
• The purchasing power of Spanish speakers represents 9% of global GDP.
• Teaching the Spanish language generates 16% of the economic value of GDP and employment in Spain.
• Knowing Spanish is considered to increase salary by nearly 10% in the United States.
• Investing in Spanish increases international business with Spanish speaking countries.
• About 8% of all Internet users are Spanish speaking, and their number is constantly growing.
• Spanish is the second most taught language in Europe.
• Spanish is a significant instrument in commercial internationalization: sharing a language (in a sample with a strong presence of Spanish speaking countries) increases the bilateral flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) seven-fold.
Business and career opportunities
Being a language of high economic value, the Spanish languages increases your business and career opportunities manifold.
As an individual, you will have a wider choice of jobs you can apply to and you can expect a higher average salary. Knowledge of the Spanish language will also offer you great opportunities to relocate and work abroad.
As a business owner, investing in Spanish will most likely be highly beneficial. It will increase your opportunities for international trade and cooperation, as well as allow you to possibly expand into the Spanish-speaking markets.
Conclusion
It is hard to put an exact number on the economic value of the Spanish language. However, from the sheer spread of Spanish and the economic influence of the Spanish-speaking countries you can easily see that learning the Spanish language is a valuable investment, both on a personal and on a business level.
References:
1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276936393_The_Economic_Value_of_Spanish
2. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4c58/8f4a7e8a4f5c15c5c6f7187a288aac0e9f35.pdf