Spanish speaking countries

The following is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories where Spanish is an official language, the national language or the de facto official language.

Spanish as official or national language

Spanish is an official language in 20 sovereign states and one dependent entity, totalling around 423 million people.

Official And National Language Sovereign states where Spanish is an official language. Country Population (2011)[1]  Spain[2] 46,754,784  Colombia[3] 44,725,543  Peru[4] 29,248,943  Venezuela[5] 27,635,743  Ecuador[6] 19,997,789  Guatemala[7] 13,824,463  Cuba[8] 11,087,330  Bolivia[9] 10,118,683 Honduras[10] 8,143,564  Paraguay[11] 6,459,058  El Salvador[12] 6,071,774  Costa Rica[13] 4,576,562  Panama[14] 3,460,462  Equatorial Guinea[15] 1,622,000 Dependent entities where Spanish is an official language. Name Population (2011)[1]  Puerto Ricoa[16] 3,989,133

De facto official and national language Sovereign states where Spanish is a de facto official language. Spanish is the main or only language of communication of the vast majority of the population; official documents are written chiefly or solely in that language; and it is spoken and taught in schools as part of the official curriculum; yet, it is not established by legislation as an official language. Country Population (2011)[1]  Mexico[17] 113,724,226  Argentina[18] 41,769,726  Chile[19] 16,888,760  Dominican Republic[20] 9,956,648  Nicaragua[21] 5,666,301  Uruguay[22] 3,308,535

^a Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. where Spanish and English are the official languages^[16] and Spanish is the primary language.

Former official language

Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish colonial rule in 1565 and through independence until a constitutional change in 1973. However, President Marcos had Spanish redesignated as an official language under Presidential Decree No. 155, dated 15 March 1973 and Spanish remained official until 1987, when it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language.^[23]

On 8 August 2007, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced that the Philippine government asked help from the Spanish Government in her plan to reintroduce Spanish as a required subject in the Philippine school system.^[24] By 2012, the language was a compulsory subject at only a very select number of secondary schools.^[25] Furthermore, despite government promotions of Spanish, less than 0.5% of the population are able to speak Spanish at least proficiently.^[26]

Commonly used language

Spanish is the most studied foreign language in the United States and many important public documents are published in both English and Spanish.^[27] Spanish is also de facto official in the U.S. state of New Mexico along with English and is increasingly used alongside English nationwide in business and politics.^[28] With over 50 million native speakers and second language speakers, the United States now has the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico.^[29] The Spanish language is not official but also holds a special status (in the education system, the media, and some official documents) in Andorra and Gibraltar.^[30] Spanish is used for international commerce in Brazil due to being surrounded mostly by Spanish-speaking countries and Spanish is widely taught as a foreign language. A similar situation exists in Belize, where Spanish is the first language of almost half of the population.

Country	Population	Native speakers
United States	314,687,369	37,579,787
Belize	301,270	106,795
Andorra	84,484	29,907
Gibraltar	27,967	13,857

Spanish-based creole language

The Spanish-based creole language of Papiamento^a is official in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. Chavacano is spoken in the Philippines, and Palenquero is spoken in Colombia but are not official.

Country	Creole language	Estimated speakers[31]	Year	Status
Philippines	Chavacano	689,000[32]	1992	Regional.
Bonaire and  Curaçao	Papiamento	185,155[32]	1981	Official.
Aruba	Papiamento	60,000	N/A	Official.

^a Papiamento is considered both a Spanish- and Portuguese-based creole language.^[33][34]

International organizations where Spanish is official

References

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