List of countries where Spanish is an 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.
In these countries 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.
a Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. where Spanish and English are the official languages 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. However, by April 2011 the issue had not yet made its way through the courts, and in January 2013 the U.S. government still referred to Puerto Rico as unincorporated.
Commonly used language
Spanish is the most studied foreign language in the United States. Spanish is spoken by 10.7% of the population. It 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. 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. In the United 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. Spanish has no official recognition in the former British colony of Belize; however, per the 2000 census, it is spoken by 46% of the population.
Spanish-based creole language
The Spanish-based creole language of Papiamentoa is official in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. Chavacano is spoken in the Philippines, and Palenquero is spoken in Colombia; but neither is official in their respective countries. The Chamorro language is spoken in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, where it is a co-official language. Judaeo-Spanish is spoken by Sephardi Jews.
|Country||Creole language||Estimated speakers||Year||Status|
|Bonaire and Curaçao||Papiamento||185,155||1981||Official.|
|Israel||Judaeo-Spanish||96,000||N/A||Not official.|
|Aruba||Papiamento||60,000||N/A||Official.|
|Guam||Chamorro||60,000||N/A||Official.|
|Northern Mariana Islands||Chamorro||60,000||N/A||Official.|
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. 156, dated 15 March 1973 and Spanish remained official until 1987, when it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language.
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. By 2012, the language was a compulsory subject at only a very select number of secondary schools. Despite government promotions of Spanish, less than 0.5% of the population are able to speak Spanish at least proficiently.
While Spanish is designated as an optional government language in the Philippines, its usage is very limited and not present in everyday life. In the country, Spanish is regulated by the Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language.
International organizations where Spanish is official
- "The World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2009-08-11.
- Mexico does not have an official language at the federal level ; however, Spanish is the national language and spoken by the majority.
- Spanish Constitution, Art. 3-1
- Constitution of Colombia, Art. 10
- The Argentine Constitution does not establish Spanish as an official language.
- Constitution of Peru, Art. 48
- Constitution of Venezuela, Art. 9
- 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.)
- Constitution of Ecuador, Art. 2
- Constitution of Guatemala, Art. 143
- Constitution of Cuba, Art. 2
- Constitution of Bolivia, Art. 5
- The Constitution of the Dominican Republic establish Spanish as it official language.
- Constitution of Honduras, Art. 6
- Constitution of Paraguay, Art. 140
- Constitution of El Salvador, Art. 62
- The Constitution of Nicaragua does not establish Spanish as an official language.
- Constitution of Costa Rica, Art. 76
- 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.
- Constitution of Panama, Art. 7
- The Constitution of Uruguay does not establish Spanish as an official language.
- Constitution of Equatorial Guinea, Art. 4
- 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 ...."
- 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."
- accessed 26 January 2013: "Puerto Rico is a self-governing, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the Caribbean".
- "Más 'speak spanish' que en España". Retrieved 2007-10-06. (Spanish)
- <Constitution of Gibraltar
- "Population Census, Major Findings" (PDF). Belize: Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Budget Management. 2000. Archived from the original on 2007-06-21. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- "Ethnologue". Retrieved 2008-06-13.
- Número de hispanohablantes en países y territorios donde el español no es lengua oficial, Instituto Cervantes.
- Attila Narin (June 1998). "Papiamentu Facts". Retrieved 2008-06-13.
- Dalby, Andrew (1998). Dictionary of Languages. Bloomsbury Publishing plc. p. 489. ISBN 0-7475-3117-X.
- 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.
- "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.
- 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.
- Medium projection, PH: National Statistics Office, Mid-2010 Check date values in:
- <Constitution of the Philippines, Art. 14