Spanish, the world’s second most widely spoken language, is the official language of 20 countries, all of which are in North and South America, except for Spain, which is in Europe. Though not considered its own country, Puerto Rico also has Spanish as its official language.
The U.S. is also home to many Spanish-speakers. To be exact, there are about 41 million people in the U.S. who speak Spanish, making it the country with the second highest number of Spanish-speakers aside from Mexico. But Spanish has much more influence in the U.S. than that. Many American students take it as a second language, kids’ television programs like Dora the Explorer and Dragon Tales have featured Spanish-speaking characters, and you’ll often hear announcements made in Spanish at international airports. It’s truly a language with great influence!
