Number of native Spanish speakers worldwide 2023, by country

Mexico is the country with the largest number of native Spanish speakers in the world. As of 2023, 127.03 million people in Mexico spoke Spanish with a native command of the language. Colombia was the nation with the second-highest number of native Spanish speakers, at around 51.74 million. Argentina came in third, with 45 million, and Spain fourth, with 43.52 million.

Spanish, a world language 

As of 2023, Spanish ranked as the fourth most spoken language in the world, only behind English, Chinese, and Hindi, with over half a billion speakers. Spanish is the official language of over 20 countries, the majority on the American continent, nonetheless, it's also one of the official languages of Equatorial Guinea in Africa. Other countries have a strong influence, like the United States, Morocco, or Brazil, countries included in the list of non-Hispanic countries with the highest number of Spanish speakers. 

The second most spoken language in the U.S.

In the most recent data, Spanish ranked as the language, other than English, with the highest number of speakers, with 11 times more speakers as the second place. Which comes to no surprise following the long history of migrations from Latin American countries to the Northern country. Moreover, only during the fiscal year 2022. 4 out of the top 10 countries of origin of naturalized people in the U.S. came from Spanish-speaking countries.