how many spanish speaking countries are there
There are 21 countries where Spanish is an official or majority language, plus 1 major territory (Puerto Rico), so you’ll often see the answer given as either 20 or 21 countries , depending on whether Puerto Rico is counted as a separate country.
Official Spanish‑speaking countries
Most modern sources group the core Spanish‑speaking world as 20 sovereign states, with Puerto Rico as an additional self‑governing territory. A more expansive count treats Puerto Rico as a “country” for language‑learning purposes and arrives at 21.
The commonly listed countries 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
And the territory:
- Puerto Rico (U.S. territory with Spanish as a co‑official majority language)
In everyday discussions, people asking “how many Spanish speaking countries are there” usually get one of these two quick answers:
- 20 – counting only fully independent countries.
- 21 – counting Puerto Rico alongside those independent countries.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.