Spanish is the 4th most spoken language in the world in terms of total speakers with 636 million speakers, and 2nd in terms of native speakers with 519 million.
**The countries with the most Spanish speakers are:**
1. Mexico (132 million)
2. USA (65 million)
3. Colombia (53 million)
4. Spain (49 million)
5. Argentina (47 million)
6. Peru (31 million)
7. Venezuela (28 million)
8. Chile (20 million)
9. Ecuador (18 million)
10. Guatemala (16 million)
**Among countries where Spanish is not an official language:**
1. USA (65 million)
2. France (7.8 million)
3. Brazil (7.4 million)
4. Germany (5.7 million)
5. United Kingdom (3.1 million)
6. Italy (3 million)
7. Canada (1.8 million)
8. Morocco (1.7 million)
9. Netherlands (1.3 million)
10. Portugal (1.1 million)
playhacker on
> Total Number of People Who Can Speak Spanish by Country
as always, **CITATION NEEDED**
I know for a fact there are people that speak Spanish in Australia (and maybe Philippines) but it’s not in your map.
It is a bad idea to equate <1 million as the same as no/negligible amount of spanish speakers.
Given the arbitrary nature of a cutoff at 1 million, Belgium is excluded even though 1 in 10 speak it, which I think is more significant than say the UK which is 1 in 17
Desperate_Ad_5563 on
The Spanish did pretty well at spreading their base culture. The british also did pretty good with partial credit to the Americans but not as well as Spain.
Am I wrong here? I can’t think of another culture that has done so well since the Roman’s.
BBBBPrime on
Would be much more interesting if expressed as percentage of total population. By mapping the total number of people, you are effectively colouring nations with a larger population in darker shades than smaller countries just due to their size difference, not due to a difference in the ability of that nation to speak Spanish.
Artistic_Resident_73 on
You need population % not number of people
dapala1 on
I’m an idiot and my first thought for a good two seconds was that Alaska alone has over 50 million spanish speakers.
frolix42 on
I am surprised that, after 3 centuries of colonization, today only about 600,000 Filipinos speak Spainish. That’s less than 1%.
In 1898 that was 5-10%.
EDIT: Chavacano is related to Spanish, but it is its own language.
4immati on
highly doubt that 1.1 million portuguese people know how to speak spanish.
Warlornn on
The fact that it’s not a percent of the population skews this too much to be useful in any meaningful way, or even glean much useful info from.
NeuroXc on
Population map of the Western Hemisphere plus Spain.
lefse4me on
Would be more useful to see % of speakers vs total numbers. This is misleading to show the US more than Spain. Population differences make that inevitable so this doesn’t really show the penetration of Sopanish language. In Spain, I suspect it is greater than 90% while the US would be much lower. Can OP repost with a different view? (Unless of course the total number was the whole point which IMO doesn’t mean much.)
Edit- originally said greater than 100% in Spain which of course is impossible.
HarlequinKOTF on
If this map were from 1998 the Philippines would be the second lightest shade.
Chamrockk on
Map of Morocco is incorrect. Pretty ironic given that this post is mostly showing countries that got colonized by Spain.
nwbrown on
This is pretty useless as a raw number. It should be per capita.
BLu3_Br1ghT on
It just baffles me seeing Panamá and Germany in the same shade of blue
orangotai on
we’re defeating you China, te estamos derrotando.
FrostyBook on
I know “donde esta la bibliotecha” did I make the list?
bigfathairymarmot on
Kinda flawed, in that number is highly dependent on country population, countries under a million people will be grey even if everyone speaks Spanish.
Joseph20102011 on
The US committed a linguicide in the Philippines by stamping out [Spanish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Spanish) from the public primary school curriculum, so that English would be imposed instead. After 120 years, Filipinos are psychologically Americanized and hate anything related to “Hispanidad”.
gophergun on
This is basically just a population map of the Western hemisphere.
Konsticraft on
How is “can speak Spanish” classified? Self reported or only certified at some CEFRL or similar level?
Many people in Germany had to learn Spanish in school and were at around B1/2, but haven’t used it in years and probably couldn’t form a single correct sentence beyond ¿hola, qué tal?
it777777 on
What’s up with Portugal? Less than in Germany? Of course lower population but still…
save_the_wee_turtles on
Sometimes tables are better than graphics
jmorais00 on
That’s not as insightful as % of total population and % of total native language speakers (for non-hispanophone countries)
Space_Lux on
As a nativ german: no way lol are there 5,000,000 people here speaking spanish
Malady17 on
These numbers are off, that many Brazilians do not speak Spanish not even close.
theexpertgamer1 on
There absolutely is not that many people who speak Spanish in Brazil. It’s near zero.
Pongi on
There’s definitely not 1M Spanish speakers in Portugal
![Total Number of People Who Can Speak Spanish by Country [OC]](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/bgrt7amdhecg1-1536x855.png "Total Number of People Who Can Speak Spanish by Country [OC]")
28 Comments
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language#Geographical_distribution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language#Geographical_distribution)
Spanish is the 4th most spoken language in the world in terms of total speakers with 636 million speakers, and 2nd in terms of native speakers with 519 million.
**The countries with the most Spanish speakers are:**
1. Mexico (132 million)
2. USA (65 million)
3. Colombia (53 million)
4. Spain (49 million)
5. Argentina (47 million)
6. Peru (31 million)
7. Venezuela (28 million)
8. Chile (20 million)
9. Ecuador (18 million)
10. Guatemala (16 million)
**Among countries where Spanish is not an official language:**
1. USA (65 million)
2. France (7.8 million)
3. Brazil (7.4 million)
4. Germany (5.7 million)
5. United Kingdom (3.1 million)
6. Italy (3 million)
7. Canada (1.8 million)
8. Morocco (1.7 million)
9. Netherlands (1.3 million)
10. Portugal (1.1 million)
> Total Number of People Who Can Speak Spanish by Country
as always, **CITATION NEEDED**
I know for a fact there are people that speak Spanish in Australia (and maybe Philippines) but it’s not in your map.
It is a bad idea to equate <1 million as the same as no/negligible amount of spanish speakers.
Given the arbitrary nature of a cutoff at 1 million, Belgium is excluded even though 1 in 10 speak it, which I think is more significant than say the UK which is 1 in 17
The Spanish did pretty well at spreading their base culture. The british also did pretty good with partial credit to the Americans but not as well as Spain.
Am I wrong here? I can’t think of another culture that has done so well since the Roman’s.
Would be much more interesting if expressed as percentage of total population. By mapping the total number of people, you are effectively colouring nations with a larger population in darker shades than smaller countries just due to their size difference, not due to a difference in the ability of that nation to speak Spanish.
You need population % not number of people
I’m an idiot and my first thought for a good two seconds was that Alaska alone has over 50 million spanish speakers.
I am surprised that, after 3 centuries of colonization, today only about 600,000 Filipinos speak Spainish. That’s less than 1%.
In 1898 that was 5-10%.
EDIT: Chavacano is related to Spanish, but it is its own language.
highly doubt that 1.1 million portuguese people know how to speak spanish.
The fact that it’s not a percent of the population skews this too much to be useful in any meaningful way, or even glean much useful info from.
Population map of the Western Hemisphere plus Spain.
Would be more useful to see % of speakers vs total numbers. This is misleading to show the US more than Spain. Population differences make that inevitable so this doesn’t really show the penetration of Sopanish language. In Spain, I suspect it is greater than 90% while the US would be much lower. Can OP repost with a different view? (Unless of course the total number was the whole point which IMO doesn’t mean much.)
Edit- originally said greater than 100% in Spain which of course is impossible.
If this map were from 1998 the Philippines would be the second lightest shade.
Map of Morocco is incorrect. Pretty ironic given that this post is mostly showing countries that got colonized by Spain.
This is pretty useless as a raw number. It should be per capita.
It just baffles me seeing Panamá and Germany in the same shade of blue
we’re defeating you China, te estamos derrotando.
I know “donde esta la bibliotecha” did I make the list?
Kinda flawed, in that number is highly dependent on country population, countries under a million people will be grey even if everyone speaks Spanish.
The US committed a linguicide in the Philippines by stamping out [Spanish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Spanish) from the public primary school curriculum, so that English would be imposed instead. After 120 years, Filipinos are psychologically Americanized and hate anything related to “Hispanidad”.
This is basically just a population map of the Western hemisphere.
How is “can speak Spanish” classified? Self reported or only certified at some CEFRL or similar level?
Many people in Germany had to learn Spanish in school and were at around B1/2, but haven’t used it in years and probably couldn’t form a single correct sentence beyond ¿hola, qué tal?
What’s up with Portugal? Less than in Germany? Of course lower population but still…
Sometimes tables are better than graphics
That’s not as insightful as % of total population and % of total native language speakers (for non-hispanophone countries)
As a nativ german: no way lol are there 5,000,000 people here speaking spanish
These numbers are off, that many Brazilians do not speak Spanish not even close.
There absolutely is not that many people who speak Spanish in Brazil. It’s near zero.
There’s definitely not 1M Spanish speakers in Portugal