2QUESTION 2 OF 3
Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
519,000,000
people
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
There are about 8 billion people on earth. Spanish is the first language of Mexico, of nearly all of Central and South America apart from Brazil, and of Spain. That is a lot of countries but not a lot of the planet. What share of everyone? Call it 6%.
- World population
- ~8,000,000,000
- Share who grow up speaking Spanish
- × 6%
- 8 billion × 6%
- ≈ 480,000,000
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- Native Spanish speakers worldwide (Instituto Cervantes, 'Spanish: A Language to the World' 2025 report)
- 519,000,000
- Share of global population
- ≈ 6.3%
Reference cited by Fermi: Instituto Cervantes, 'Spanish: A Language to the World' 2025 report
How close was your guess?
Your comparison will appear here.
Compare by ratio: divide the larger number by the smaller one. The closer to 1×, the better.