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.