Map highlighting countries where Spanish is an official language.

The following is a list of the 20 countries where Spanish is currently an official language:

Country	Constitutional rank	Population (2009)[1]
Mexico	No.[2] De facto.[citation needed]	111,211,789
Colombia	Yes.[3]	45,644,023
Argentina	No.[4] De facto.[citation needed]	40,913,584
Spain	Yes.[5]	40,525,002
Peru	Yes.[6]	29,546,963
Venezuela	Yes.[7]	26,814,843
Chile	No.[8] De facto.[citation needed]	16,601,707
Ecuador	Yes.[9]	14,573,101
Guatemala	Yes.[10]	13,276,517
Cuba	Yes.[11]	11,451,652
Bolivia	Yes.[12]	9,775,246
Dominican Republic	No.[13] De facto.[citation needed]	9,650,054
Honduras	Yes.[14]	7,792,854
El Salvador	Yes.[15]	7,185,218
Paraguay	Yes.[16]	6,995,655
Nicaragua	No.[17] De facto.[citation needed]	5,891,199
Costa Rica	Yes.[18]	4,253,877
Uruguay	No.[19] De facto.[citation needed]	3,494,382
Panama	Yes.[20]	3,360,474
Equatorial Guinea	Yes.[21]	633,441
Total		409,591,581

Spanish was removed as an official language of the Philippines in 1973 and was removed from being a compulsory subject in 1987; It was never spoken by a large percentage of the population.

[edit] Dependent entities

There are dependent entities where Spanish is official:

Country	Population (2009)	Status
Puerto Rico[22]	3,971,020[1]	An unincorporated territory of the U.S. where Spanish and English are the official languages[citation needed] (Spanish is the primary language).[citation needed]
Argentine Antarctica (de facto)[4]	300[citation needed]	Argentinean territory in Antarctica; not recognized internationally as part of Argentina.
Chilean Antarctica (de facto)[8]	200[citation needed]	Chilean territory in Antarctica; not recognized internationally as part of Chile.

[edit] Countries where Spanish is commonly used

Spanish language is not official but has a special status in several countries (in the education system, the media, and some official documents): Andorra,^{[citation needed]} Belize,^{[citation needed]} Gibraltar,^{[23][citation needed]} United States,^{[citation needed]} and Western Sahara.^{[24][citation needed]}

Country	Population (2009)[1]	Spanish-speaking population
United States	307,212,123	32,871,697[25]
Belize	307,899	144,713[25]
Western Sahara (SADR)	405,210	?
Andorra	83,888	?
Gibraltar	28,034	?

[edit] Countries where a Spanish-based creole is spoken

The Spanish-based creole language of Papiamento¹ is official in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. Chavacano is spoken in the Philippines, and Palenquero is spoken in Colombia but are not official.

Country	Creole language	Estimated speakers[26]	Status
Philippines	Chavacano	607,000[citation needed]	Regional.[citation needed]
Netherlands Antilles	Papiamento	179,000[citation needed]	Official.[citation needed]
Aruba	Papiamento	60,000[citation needed]	Official.[citation needed]
Colombia	Palenquero	500[citation needed]	Not official.[3]

¹Papiamento is considered both a Spanish- and Portuguese-based creole language.^[27][28]

[edit] Organizations where Spanish is official

[edit] References