List of countries where Spanish is an official language

List of countries where Spanish is an official language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map highlighting countries where Spanish is an official language, or a de facto official language.

  Spanish is sole official language at the national level
  Spanish a co-official language

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 a national language in 20 sovereign states and one dependent entity, totaling around 442 million people.[1]

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.

Country Status Population
(2011)[2]		 Regulatory body More information
 Mexico De facto[3] 113,724,226 Academia Mexicana de la Lengua Mexican Spanish
 Spain De jure[4] 47,042,784 Real Academia Española Peninsular Spanish
 Colombia De jure[5] 44,725,543 Academia Colombiana de la Lengua Colombian Spanish
 Argentina De facto[6] 41,769,726 Academia Argentina de Letras Rioplatense Spanish
 Peru De jure[7] 29,248,943 Academia Peruana de la Lengua Peruvian Coast Spanish
 Venezuela De jure[8] 27,635,743 Academia Venezolana de la Lengua Venezuelan Spanish
 Ecuador De jure[9] 19,997,789 Academia Ecuatoriana de la Lengua Ecuadorian Spanish
 Chile De facto[10] 16,888,760 Academia Chilena de la Lengua Chilean Spanish
 Guatemala De jure[11] 13,824,463 Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua Guatemalan Spanish
 Cuba De jure[12] 11,087,330 Academia Cubana de la Lengua Cuban Spanish
 Bolivia De jure[13] 10,118,683 Academia Boliviana de la Lengua Bolivian Spanish
 Dominican Republic De jure[14] 9,956,648 Academia Dominicana de la Lengua Dominican Spanish
Honduras Honduras De jure[15] 8,143,564 Academia Hondureña de la Lengua Honduran Spanish
 Paraguay De jure[16] 6,459,058 Academia Paraguaya de la Lengua Española Paraguayan Spanish
 El Salvador De jure[17] 6,071,774 Academia Salvadoreña de la Lengua Salvadoran Castilian
 Nicaragua De facto[18] 5,666,301 Academia Nicaragüense de la Lengua Nicaraguan Spanish
 Costa Rica De jure[19] 4,576,562 Academia Costarricense de la Lengua Costa Rican Spanish
 Puerto Ricoa De jure[20] 3,989,133 Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española Puerto Rican Spanish
 Panama De jure[21] 3,460,462 Academia Panameña de la Lengua Panamanian Spanish
 Uruguay De facto[22] 3,308,535 Academia Nacional de Letras Uruguayan Spanish
 Equatorial Guinea De jure[23] 1,622,000 None Equatoguinean Spanish

a Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. where Spanish and English are the official languages[20] and Spanish is the primary language.

In November 2008 a district court judge ruled that a sequence of Congressional actions have had the cumulative effect of changing Puerto Rico’s status to incorporated.[24] However, by April 2011 the issue had not yet made its way through the courts,[25] and in January 2013 the U.S. government still referred to Puerto Rico as unincorporated.[26]

Population of the Spanish speaking countries (+ Puerto Rico) in 2011

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] In the States, it is regulated by the North American Academy of the Spanish Language. 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] A similar situation exists in Belize, where Spanish is the first language of more than a third 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 Papiamentoa is official in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
 Bonaire and  Curaçao Papiamento 185,155[32] 1981 Official.[citation needed]
 Aruba Papiamento 60,000[citation needed] N/A Official.[citation needed]

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

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 Ferdinand 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.[35]

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.[36] By 2012, the language was a compulsory subject at only a very select number of secondary schools.[37] Despite government promotions of Spanish, less than 0.5% of the population are able to speak Spanish at least proficiently.[38]

International organizations where Spanish is official

References

  1. http://eldiae.es/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/El-espa%C3%B1ol-lengua-viva-2014.pdf
  2. “The World Factbook”. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
  3. Mexico does not have an official language at the federal level [1]; however, Spanish is the national language and spoken by the majority.[citation needed]
  4. Spanish Constitution, Art. 3-1
  5. Constitution of Colombia, Art. 10
  6. The Argentine Constitution does not establish Spanish as an official language.
  7. Constitution of Peru, Art. 48
  8. Constitution of Venezuela, Art. 9
  9. Constitution of Ecuador, Art. 2
  10. The Constitution of Chile does not establish Spanish as an official language. However, Chilean legislation establishes that schools must teach students to communicate in the “Castilian language” (General Law on Education (Articles 29 and 30), Chile Library of Congress.)
  11. Constitution of Guatemala, Art. 143
  12. Constitution of Cuba, Art. 2
  13. Constitution of Bolivia, Art. 5
  14. The Constitution of the Dominican Republic establish Spanish as it official language.
  15. Constitution of Honduras, Art. 6
  16. Constitution of Paraguay, Art. 140
  17. Constitution of El Salvador, Art. 62
  18. The Constitution of Nicaragua does not establish Spanish as an official language.
  19. Constitution of Costa Rica, Art. 76
  20. Constitution of Puerto Rico, Art. 3, Section 5: It is mandatory to be able to read and write in either English or Spanish in order to be a member of the Legislative Assembly.
  21. Constitution of Panama, Art. 7
  22. The Constitution of Uruguay does not establish Spanish as an official language.
  23. Constitution of Equatorial Guinea, Art. 4
  24. Consejo de Salud Playa Ponce v. Johnny Rullan, p.28: “The Congressional incorporation of Puerto Rico throughout the past century has extended the entire Constitution to the island ….”
  25. Hon. Gustavo A. Gelpi, “The Insular Cases: A Comparative Historical Study of Puerto Rico, Hawai’i, and the Philippines”, The Federal Lawyer, March/April 2011. http://www.aspira.org/files/legal_opinion_on_pr_insular_cases.pdf p. 25: “In light of the [Supreme Court] ruling in Boumediene, in the future the Supreme Court will be called upon to reexamine the Insular Cases doctrine as applied to Puerto Rico and other US territories.”
  26. accessed 26 January 2013: “Puerto Rico is a self-governing, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the Caribbean”.
  27. “Language Rights and New Mexico Statehood”, The Excluded Student: Educational Practices Affecting Mexican Americans in the Southwest, Mexican American Education Study, Report III, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972, pp. 76–82[dead link]
  28. [2]
  29. “Más ‘speak spanish’ que en España”. Retrieved 2007-10-06. (Spanish)
  30. Constitution of Gibraltar
  31. “Ethnologue”. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  32. Número de hispanohablantes en países y territorios donde el español no es lengua oficial, Instituto Cervantes.
  33. Attila Narin (June 1998). “Papiamentu Facts”. Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  34. Dalby, Andrew (1998). Dictionary of Languages. Bloomsbury Publishing plc. p. 489. ISBN 0-7475-3117-X.
  35. Article XIV, Sec 7: For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English. The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein. Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.
  36. “La presidenta filipina pedirá ayuda a España para oficializar el español” (in Spanish). MSN Noticias. Archived from the original on 2007-10-26. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
  37. Legaspi, Amita O. (3 July 2012). “PNoy (President Benigno Aquino III) and Spain’s Queen Sofia welcome return of Spanish language in Philippine schools”. GMA News.
  38. Medium projection, PH: National Statistics Office, Mid-2010

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