A study of the dynamics of language carried out by the Institute for Human Sciences in Lyon, France, shows that the Spanish pronounce 26% more syllables per second than the English and 50% more than a Mandarin Chinese. However, the amount of information transmitted is the same.
The study looked at the German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese and Mandarin, noting that the number of syllables available varies from 416 in Japanese to about 8000 in English.
The study notes that the syllables in English and German have more content. The Spanish, and Italians to some extent, speak very quickly and use far more syllables to tell the exactly the same story.
As the French conclude, the Spanish talk a lot but say the least.