The 20 countries where Spanish is official
Nineteen of the twenty are in the Americas or Europe, the legacy of Spain's colonial empire from the 1500s onward, and the twentieth, Equatorial Guinea, is the only country in Africa with Spanish as an official language. Most treat Spanish as their sole official language, though several recognize indigenous languages alongside it, a growing trend in the Andean countries in particular.
| Country | Continent | Status |
|---|---|---|
 Spain | Europe | Sole official language |
 Mexico | North America | Sole official language, largest Spanish speaking country |
 Colombia | South America | Sole official language |
 Argentina | South America | Sole official language |
 Peru | South America | Official, co-official with Quechua and Aymara regionally |
 Venezuela | South America | Sole official language |
 Chile | South America | Sole official language |
 Ecuador | South America | Official, co-official with Quechua and Shuar regionally |
 Guatemala | North America | Sole official language |
 Cuba | North America | Sole official language |
 Bolivia | South America | Co-official with 36 indigenous languages |
 Dominican Republic | North America | Sole official language |
 Honduras | North America | Sole official language |
 Paraguay | South America | Co-official with Guarani |
 El Salvador | North America | Sole official language |
 Nicaragua | North America | Sole official language |
 Costa Rica | North America | Sole official language |
 Panama | North America | Sole official language |
 Uruguay | South America | Sole official language |
 Equatorial Guinea | Africa | Co-official with French and Portuguese |
Puerto Rico and the United States, without official status
Two more places belong in this conversation even though neither is a sovereign country with Spanish as its national official language. Puerto Rico, a US territory rather than an independent state, has Spanish co-official with English, and it is the daily language of the large majority of its residents. The United States itself has no official language at the federal level, English or otherwise, but according to the Instituto Cervantes it is home to one of the largest Spanish speaking populations of any country on Earth. Roughly 45 million US residents aged five and older speak Spanish at home according to 2024 American Community Survey data, and broader counts that include second language speakers put the total closer to 59 million, a population on the scale of Spain's or Argentina's, sitting inside a country where Spanish carries no official status at all.
How many people actually speak Spanish
The Instituto Cervantes, Spain's official institute for the study and teaching of the language, publishes an annual demographic report called El espanol en el mundo. Its 2025 edition puts native Spanish speakers worldwide at just over 520 million for the first time, and the total climbs past 630 million once second language speakers and learners are added in, a group that includes tens of millions of people studying Spanish in the United States, Brazil, and across the European Union. That places Spanish third in the world by native speakers, behind only Mandarin and Hindi. Mexico alone accounts for the largest single share, with a population of roughly 129 million where Spanish is spoken as a first language by the vast majority.
Why Equatorial Guinea is the exception
Equatorial Guinea, a small oil producing country on Central Africa's Atlantic coast, became a Spanish colony in the 18th century and kept Spanish as an official language after independence in 1968, alongside French and, since 2010, Portuguese. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that close to 88 percent of the population is fluent in Spanish, making it the primary language of government and education even though most residents also speak a native Bantu language such as Fang or Bubi at home. It is the only country in Africa where Spanish holds that status, which is why geographers usually flag it as the outlier on any Spanish speaking list built around Latin America and Spain.
Quick facts
- Twenty countries hold Spanish as an official language, nineteen in the Americas and Europe plus Equatorial Guinea in Africa.
- Mexico has the largest native Spanish speaking population of any country, at around 129 million people.
- The United States has no official language, yet is home to one of the largest Spanish speaking populations in the world, estimated at 45 to 59 million people.
- Puerto Rico, a US territory, has Spanish co-official with English.
- The Instituto Cervantes counts more than 520 million native Spanish speakers worldwide and over 630 million including second language speakers, as of its 2025 report.