Almost 470 million people speak Spanish as their native language around the world, while another 21 million study it as a second language. What’s more it’s the third-most-widely spoken language on the internet and the second on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, according to the latest report by the Instituto Cervantes. But the state-funded body responsible for teaching Spanish around the world also warns of what it calls the poor state of spoken and written Spanish.

Here are 10 facts about the Spanish language you might be interested to know:

All the Instituto Cervantes network and through its different branches over the world open up their doors on this day with a programme of cultural activities for everybody.

In a separate study, a team of researchers, led by Dr Peter Dodds from the University of Vermont, built a database of billions of individual words from 10 of the most popular languages using online sources.