Story highlights The United States has more Spanish speakers than Spain or Colombia, report says

By 2050, the United States will have highest Spanish-speaking population in the world, the report predicts

(CNN) The United States is now the second largest Spanish-speaking country, second only to Mexico, according to a new report by the Spain-based nonprofit Instituto Cervantes.

Surpassing major Spanish-speaking nations such as Spain and Colombia, the United States is home to 41 million native Spanish speakers, with an additional 11.6 million who are bilingual, according to data collected from the U.S. census and other government sources.

Spain has a population of 47.7 million. Colombia has a population of 46.2 million. The United States has a population of 318.9 million.

By 2050, the United States will have the highest Spanish-speaking population in the world at 132.8 million, according to the report, citing figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The new report also found that Spanish is the third most used language on the Internet -- following Chinese and English -- and second after English on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

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