Spanish Third Most-Read Language on the Internet

Spanish is the third most-used language on the Internet, behind only English and Chinese, according to a report released Monday.

The language is used by about 136 million users, accounting for 33% of Spanish speakers and 8% of online users worldwide, according to “Spanish on the Internet,” a study by the Fundación Telefónica, an institute by Spain’s Grupo Telefónica.

English and Chinese speakers account for 50% of all users.

There are 681 million pages in Spanish, according to the institute, which cited Google.

The report was prepared by José Luís García Delgado, a professor of Applied Economics at Madrid’s Universidad Complutense, Guillermo Rojo and Mercedes Sánchez.

It says Internet usage has exploded in Latin America. Between September 2006 and September 2009, the percentage of the population with access to the Internet doubled from 15% to 30%.

In Spain, a typical user is a man under the age of 45 who reads the digital press electronically, the report found. Approximately 8.4 million Spaniards read news on their computers while another 2.9 million get it on their mobile phones.

In fact, more Spaniards read newspapers on the Internet than they do in print form, according to the report.

In the U.S., 47% of Spanish-speaking Latinos spend an hour each day on the Internet, the study found.