How many Spanish-speaking countries are there in the world? How Many People across the Globe know Spanish? Discover all.
There are over 20 Spanish-speaking countries and more than 70 nations with measurable Spanish-speaking populations worldwide.
Spanish is one of the most popular languages on earth. Spanish is one of the four foreign languages that can be useful and spoken in over 25 countries worldwide.
It is one of the official working languages in dozens of influential international organizations such as the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and a host of other worldwide institutions.
Spanish Speaking Nations – Hispanic World
There are 20 Spanish speaking countries worldwide.
It is the official language or the de facto language of Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Peru, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.
In addition to these 20 countries, It is the official language of Puerto Rico (an unincorporated territory of the United States). It is commonly spoken in the USA, Belize, Andorra, Gibraltar, etc.
How many people speak Spanish in the world?
According to Instituto Cervantes, Spanish is a language spoken by more than 572 million people in the world today.
This number includes:
- Native speakers,
- A second or third language (L2 or L3), and
- Students of all ages who do not live in Hispanic countries but have learned Spanish.
With 477 million native speakers, It is also the second most native spoken language globally, only behind Mandarin Chinese, which has roughly 955 million speakers. English has approximately 400 million native speakers.
Spanish is the third most studied language after English and French.
The language is being taught in more than 100 countries of the earth, with more than 500,000 teachers and 100 million students.
Spanish is one of the most studied languages globally, whether in high school or college or any learning center. Besides, as per IWS – It’s now the 3rd most common language on the Internet.
1. Spanish speaking population in the USA
With over 50 million Spanish speakers, the US has surpassed Colombia (48 million) and Spain (46 million) and now the second-largest Spanish-Speaking Country After Mexico.
The US Census Office believes there will be 138 million Spanish speakers by 2050 — making it the biggest Spanish-speaking nation on the earth.
2. Spanish Speakers in Central and South America
The Spanish language arrived in America first through Christopher Columbus’s exploratory travels.
Then with the rest of the colonizers, at the end of the fifteenth century. Spanish is the most widely spoken language in Central and South America.
With over 125 million speakers, Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.
Colombia has about 46 million speakers, while Argentina boasts nearly 41 million speakers.
Most Latin American countries, those in Central and South America, speak Spanish with an ever-increasing amount of people in the USA.
That is almost an entire hemisphere full of a language.
3. Spanish Language in Europe
In Europe, Spanish is the official language of Spain. It is one of the 24 official languages of the European Union.
While Spanish is not as widespread as English, German, and French in Europe, it is taught in most nations in Europe.
It is widespread in Andorra and Gibraltar.
Spanish also enjoys the presence of large communities in Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, where there is an active community in London.
4. Spanish Speakers in the rest of the World
While 95% of Spanish speakers inhabit the Americas and Europe, there are pockets of Spanish-speaking populations in the rest of the world.
Spanish is spoken by 68% population in Equatorial Guinea.
It is the only country in Africa that has Spanish as an official language. Morocco and parts of western Sahara have a decent number of speakers as well.
Historically Spanish was a more widely understood language in the Philippines.
Today, Philippine Spanish is considered a variant of standard Spanish.
It has about 3 million Chavacano speakers, a Spanish-based creole that developed in the southern Philippines.
The Philippines were under Spanish rule from 1565-1898. Due to their historical roots, the Spanish have left their presence in the Filipino culture during the colonial era.
There are thousands of Spanish loanwords in the Filipino languages. Because of the traditional base and the similarities shared by these languages, It is admitted in written legal documents and courts of law.
Conclusion
Like any other language, there are several Spanish dialects in the world.
While it may sound quite different, it’s all still Spanish!
Compared to other tongues, different Spanish dialects are not challenging to master.
Spanish-speaking populations from different regions and countries can still communicate effectively without knowing the specific dialect. Spanish is not a difficult language to master, mainly if you speak one of the romance languages.
The advantages of learning a foreign language for your career are numerous.
Career opportunities are the most-sought reason to pursue a foreign language course.
There is an ever-increasing amount of reasons why to learn Spanish in India.
With twenty-five Spanish-speaking countries in the world and over five hundred and fifty million people in the world speaking Spanish, what better language could there be to learn?
Learning Spanish makes sense!
If you’re interested in Spanish Courses in Noida, Check out our courses designed as per the DELE and SIELE.
I love the Spanish Language and the Article, and thank you for mentioning CHAVACANO. Chavacano and spanish speakers can both join in one conversation; they both understand each other. Some Spanish students went to Zamboanga City to investigate the dialect, and they were surprised that they could mutually communicate using the Spanish language alone.
Thank you
🤣 love all the hater comments! 😂
It’s inevitable, better start studying kids. It will be the dominant language in America (N/S) in under 100 years. Period!
Terrible, misleading map, Sneaky how the southern part of the United States is portrayed as ‘Spanish speaking.’ The United States is official ‘English’ Speaking, and there are at least 100 other languages spoken in the USA, i.e., Vietnamese, Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, etc. Just because there happen to be more immigrant Spanish speakers in the USA does not make it more special, which is exactly how you portray it.
Furthermore, you intentionally make Spanish out to be more spoken than it is in the parts of the world you shaded in in blue. Almost any language spoken in the world has speakers in all of the ‘blue’ parts of the world you indicated Spanish is spoken in. Portuguese, for example, is spoken in all of those blue-shaded parts of the world and even more countries than Spanish. PORTUGUESE is OFFICIALLY SPOKEN in 5 CONTINENTS. It has a geographically widespread language profile right across the globe, for the simple reason of the 5 continents where Portuguese is officially spoken.
The other sneaky tactic you used is making Spanish out to be much more than t really is in the Philippines. Chavacano is not a variant of Spanish but a creole of Spanish – big difference! It is not even intelligible with standard Spanish. As such, Chavacano may as well be Mandarin there. Furthermore, it is only spoken by a few thousand. Besides, Tagalog and English are the ‘official’ languages of the Philippines – Chavacano is an ‘outlier’ language and meaningless in the modern world at risk of extinction in the near future.
Let’s not forget about Morocco. A few hundred people speak Spanish in the Southern area, but French and Arabic are the ‘de facto’ official languages. Spanish is on its way out as its status is perfunctory there.
Even in a country such as ‘Paraguay,’ ‘Guarani’ is the more ‘revered’ and the language of the soul of the Paraguayan people. Additionally, Spanish has its status tempered by Quechua, Aymara, Tupi-Guarani, Mohica, and Chipaya indigenous languages of the Andes region. Only 45% of Bolivians are fluent in Spanish!
And those European places you mentioned, Spanish is not more spoken than Portuguese. In France, there are close to 1.5 million speakers of Portuguese. There are also many thousands in Germany. Portuguese is the most spoken foreign language in Luxembourg! There are many thousand Portuguese speakers in England too! Ditto for Switzerland and Andorra, and even in Spain!
And then there is Japan. There are almost 450,000 speakers of Portuguese in Japan, spoken by Japanese Brazilians! Portuguese is huge in the Japanese print & visual media, and it is taught in the Japanese school system,
By the way, the Chinese Indians are learning Portuguese in leaps and bounds due to a huge trade between them and Portuguese officially speaking Brazil, Angola and Mozambique. Portuguese is even being taught, in some cases obligatorily, in Spanish speaking countries, i.e., Argentina and Uruguay & ParaguIn addition, ay. Portuguese is a favorite foreign language in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, etc.
In Africa, there are huge Portuguese-speaking communities in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Zaire, etc., taught in the school systems there as well!
The moral of the story, please do not make Spanish out to be more than what it is, which is a strong REGIONAL language, whereas Portuguese is a true GLOBAL language, in the same league as French and English in terms of being spoken officially right across the globe!
You made too many points. While some are true, most are based on wrong assumptions. (Sorry for correcting grammatical mistakes to improve readability)
Firstly, none of the images are made by me but taken from different sources, and they are correct. The ones you disagree with are from official Cervantes.es. It will help if you read their extensive research about the Spanish-speaking population. Again, you may disagree, but that’s how analysis and opinion vary.
Second, nowhere in the article states that the USA is Spanish-speaking. In fact, the USA doesn’t have any official language. However, Spanish is spoken by 50 million, which is true. And the future prediction is based on the report of the US Census Office.
The same thing is about the Philippines. It is clearly mentioned – Chavacano, variant, Spanish-based creole.
Lastly, I haven’t talked about Portuguese, let alone made any conclusions. Not even a word, because that is not the topic. Portuguese is a widespread and important language, and I have written quite a few articles on that. It seems you concluded too early, without even reading the article. Ironically, this isn’t even a long post. Anyways, I hope you will reread it and understand the points. I wish you all the best. Peace!
I absolutely agree with you! Spanish gets way more credit than it deserves!
So what that Spanish is spoken 21 countries, if 50% of those countries (banana republics) are ignorant, impoverished (Central Americans are leaving their respective countries by the hundreds of thousands into the United States illegally) economically insignificant and extremely corrupt?
Besides, Brazil alone, geographically speaking, comprises at least 50% of the total land area of South America. Brazil has the world’s 7th strongest economy having a GDP of 2.5 million approx. And, it goes without saying that is has the strongest economy in all of Iberian America (Spanish + Portuguese languages) comprised of i.e., Spamish speaking countries, and Brazil, obviously. Brazil is also the 5th largest country in the world! The Portuguese/Brazilians were smart for keeping Brazil from splintering into separate countries – the mistake Spanish America made. Just look a blobe of the world: although many, the Spanish speaking countries in South America look rather unimportant when compared to gargantuan Brazil! Brazil is overwhelming, (not prefect economically & socially) but awe inspiring nonetheless!
But Portuguese is hugekt important in Africa as well, particularly Souther Africa! 6 African nations have Portuguese as an official language. 2 of them, Angola and Mozambique are becoming African economic powerhouses in their own right! Not only that, bothe nations are huge (easily cover Mexico and all of Central america in terms of land area). And….both are abundanrlt rich in natural resources i.e., gold, silver, oil, natural gas, diamonds, coffee, sugar, other precious metals and agricultural commodities, Many compare Angola and Mozambique as the ‘African Brazils’. The capital city of Luanda, Angola looks like the city of ‘West Palm Beach Florida! It looks and smells like $$$$$ So does the capital city of Maputo, Mozambique! People are moving there in droves in anricipation of a sort of economic ‘GOLD RUSH!’ For now it is mostly the Portuguese, Brazilians and Chinese, drawn there to start small businesses, while at least as many have gone there as workers for large enterprises (construction or other). In many African countries, Portuguese has also become a favourite 1st or 2nd foreign language of choice to learn.
This wan’t mentioned before, but the Portuguese language is co-official in East Timor, Oceania and in Macau, China. Roughly 10,000 people still speak Portuguese in the former Portuguese colony of Goa, India, where a linguistic-cultural renaissance is taking place for all things Portuguese namely the language., which is being studied all over India, especially in Goa. Portuguese is taught there to the Ph.D level. And Macau has become the Chinese/Asian gateway to the Potuguese speaking world known as CPLP (Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries – 10 where Portuguese is oficially spoken). China does a huge amount of trade with Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and Portugal. In East Timor, almost 50% of the population are fluent in Portuguese. Brazilian Japanese expats number close to 350,000. Portuguese has become very popular there in the print, radio, television media. Portuguese is taught in the schools as well.. So as is obvious, Portuguese is once again booming in Asia!
For me, the Portuguese language wins hands down!
Hi Sir. Can you suggest the book names of A1, A2, B1, B2 books followed in India? Thank you.
There are no particular books for India specific. You can take the help of any DELE-related books.
I love Spanish songs.