how many countries are there in the world that have spanish as the official language
There are 20 countries and 1 self‑governing territory where Spanish is an official language.
Official Spanish‑speaking states
Most linguistic and demographic sources today converge on the figure of 20 sovereign states that list Spanish as an official or co‑official national language.
These are:
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Spain
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
In addition, Puerto Rico is a self‑governing territory of the United States where Spanish is an official language alongside English.
Why some sources say “21 countries”
You will sometimes see “21 Spanish‑speaking countries” in language‑learning articles and travel blogs.
In most of those counts, Puerto Rico is grouped together with sovereign states , which is why they talk about “21 Spanish‑speaking countries” even though it is technically a territory, not an independent country.
So, depending on how strictly you define “country”:
- If you mean independent states : there are 20 with Spanish as an official language.
- If you include Puerto Rico as a country in casual speech: you’ll see the figure 21 used very often.
For most everyday and exam‑style questions, answering “20 countries, plus Puerto Rico as a territory” is accurate and safe.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.