Though not an official language at the national level, Spanish is regularly spoken by significant populations throughout these countries. Public services, education, and information are widely available in Spanish, as are various forms of printed and broadcast media.
Andorra Spanish is not the official language of
Andorra but holds a special status in some fields, namely in education and business. Public education in Spanish (following the
Spanish public education system) is offered in the country. It is the second-most spoken language in the country, with nearly half of the population conversant in Spanish, rivaling the official
Catalan in both native and total speaker numbers. Spanish has also emerged as the lingua franca between various linguistic groups and in the commercial sector, which has triggered government efforts to promote the more general and universal use of Catalan. In 2008, 30.8% of students were enrolled in the Spanish education system.
Belize Spanish has no official recognition in the
Central American nation of
Belize, a
Commonwealth of Nations member state where English is the official national language. However, the country shares land borders with Spanish-speaking Mexico and Guatemala and per the 2022 Belizean census, Spanish is spoken by a sizable portion of the population; 54% of the population has a working knowledge of the language.
Gibraltar Spanish is not official in the
British Overseas Territory of
Gibraltar, which shares its only land border with Spain. Nevertheless, Spanish is compulsory for secondary school students and a mixture of Spanish and English called
Llanito is colloquially spoken among most inhabitants. Recent trends since the 2000s have found, however, that Spanish proficiency and usage among younger generations is declining as members of these groups tend to use English exclusively.
United States Spanish has been spoken in the
United States for several centuries in the
Southwest and
Florida, which were all once part of
New Spain. However, today only a minority of Spanish speakers in the U.S. trace their language back to those times; the overwhelming majority of speakers come from recent immigration. Only in northern
New Mexico and southern
Colorado there have been Spanish-speaking communities uninterruptedly since colonial times. Spanish is the most studied foreign language in United States schools and is spoken as a native tongue by 41 million people, plus an additional 11 million fluent second-language speakers. Though not official, Spanish has a special status in the American state of
New Mexico. With almost 60 million native speakers and second language speakers, the United States now has the second-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico. Spanish is increasingly used alongside English nationwide in business and politics. Media in Spanish has also become influential outside of native Hispanophone circles. In the United States, correct use of the language is advocated by the
North American Academy of the Spanish Language. ==Officially recognized status==