Indo-European · ISO 639-3 spa · es
Spanish Language español
Spanish is an Indo-European language spoken by about 485 million people in 41 countries. It is an official language of Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and 13 more. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Spanish is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Spanish
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Italic
- Latino-Faliscan
- Latinic
- Imperial Latin
- Romance
- Italo-Western Romance
- Western Romance
- Shifted Western Romance
- Southwestern Shifted Romance
- West Ibero-Romance
- Castilic
- Spanish
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
All 41 countries
| Country | Speakers | Share | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
 Mexico | 108,514,200 | 83% | De facto official |
 Argentina | 46,994,400 | 100% | Official |
 Spain | 46,807,596 | 99% | Official |
 Colombia | 46,117,212 | 93% | Official |
 United Arab Emirates | 45,294,178 | 13.4% | — |
 Philippines | 36,665,870 | 31% | — |
 United States | 32,828,448 | 9.6% | Regional official |
 Venezuela | 25,625,246 | 82% | Official |
 Peru | 23,798,146 | 73% | Official |
 Chile | 18,291,406 | 98% | Official |
 Ecuador | 17,577,600 | 96% | Official |
 Guatemala | 16,064,576 | 88% | Official |
 Cuba | 10,966,000 | 100% | Official |
 France | 8,888,698 | 13% | — |
 Honduras | 8,671,562 | 91% | Official |
 Dominican Republic | 8,436,402 | 78% | Official |
 Bolivia | 7,510,320 | 61% | Official |
 El Salvador | 5,899,543 | 89% | Official |
 United Kingdom | 5,476,728 | 8% | — |
 Nicaragua | 5,208,021 | 78% | Official |
 Germany | 5,047,146 | 6% | — |
 Paraguay | 5,040,108 | 67% | Official |
 Costa Rica | 5,002,301 | 95% | Official |
 Panama | 3,084,465 | 69% | Official |
 Uruguay | 3,014,290 | 88% | Official |
 Puerto Rico | 2,626,921 | 87% | Official |
 Romania | 1,814,820 | 10% | — |
 Equatorial Guinea | 1,562,372 | 87% | Official |
 Canada | 1,241,433 | 3.2% | — |
 Portugal | 1,020,720 | 10% | — |
 Belize | 228,683 | 55% | — |
 Brazil | 79,218 | 0.04% | — |
 Andorra | 36,709 | 43% | — |
 Morocco | 24,301 | 0.07% | — |
 Aruba | 17,133 | 13.7% | — |
 Gibraltar | 14,841 | 50% | — |
 Curacao | 5,671 | 3.7% | — |
 Sint Maarten | 5,083 | 11% | — |
 Trinidad and Tobago | 4,086 | 0.29% | — |
 Cayman Islands | 2,599 | 3.9% | — |
 Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) | 241 | 7.7% | — |
About the Spanish language
Spanish (español) is spoken by about 485 million people, which makes it the 4th most spoken language in the world — just behind Hindi (544 million) and ahead of Standard Arabic (335 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Castilic group within the Italic branch.
Where is Spanish spoken?
Spanish is used in 41 countries. The largest communities live in Mexico (109 million), Argentina (47 million), Spain (47 million), Colombia (46 million) and United Arab Emirates (45 million). More than half of the population speaks it in Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Honduras and 13 more — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Spanish: Mexico 83% (109 million), Argentina 100% (47 million), Spain 99% (47 million), Colombia 93% (46 million), United Arab Emirates 13% (45 million) and Philippines 31% (37 million).
Spanish is an official language in 21 countries: Argentina, Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Paraguay and 6 more. It also has regional official status in United States.
Writing system and status
Spanish is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Portuguese, Galician, Asturian, Papiamento, Catalan, Occitan (post 1500) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 es, ISO 639-3 spa.
Frequently asked questions about Spanish
How many people speak Spanish?
Where is Spanish spoken?
In which countries is Spanish an official language?
What language family does Spanish belong to?
What is Spanish called in Spanish?
Is Spanish an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.