Hispanophone refers to anything related to theSpanish language.

In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. TheHispanic culture is the legacy of the vast and prolongedSpanish Empire, and so the term can refer to people whose cultural background is primarily associated with Spain, regardless ofracial or geographical differences. The whole sense of identity of the Hispanic population and the Hispanophones is sometimes referred by the termHispanidad (Hispanicity).

When used in terms to refer to speakers of the Spanish language and the Spanish-speaking world, theHispanosphere encompasses the following geographical areas: Spain,Hispanic America,Equatorial Guinea, and portions of the United States (namely theSouthwest andFlorida).^[1] When used in the broader sense to include areas where the local culture has been heavily impacted by Hispanic influences, the formerSpanish East Indies colonies ofPhilippines and to a lesser extent,Guam are also included.

The terms are derived from theLatin wordHispanicus ("Spanish") which refers to anything pertaining to the Roman province ofHispania ("Spain"). In addition to the general definition of Hispanophone, some groups in the Hispanic world make a distinction between Castilian-speaking^[i] and Spanish-speaking, with the former term denoting the speakers of the Spanish language—also known as Castilian—and the latter the speakers of the Spanish or Hispanic languages (i.e. thelanguages of Spain or thelanguages of the Hispanic nations).

There are an estimated 474.7 million native Spanish speakers and about 100 million second and foreign language speakers around the world as of 2022, totaling 574 million Hispanophones in total.^[2] This makes Spanish thesecond most natively spoken language andfourth most spoken language overall globally. The vast majority of Hispanophones are concentrated in the Hispanosphere, the countries and territories where Spanish is a native or significant language.

During the Spanish period between 1492 and 1898, many people from Spainmigrated to the new lands they had conquered. TheSpaniards took with them their language and culture, and integrated within the society they had settled, creating a large empire that stretched all over the world and producing several multiracial populations. Their influences are found in the following continents and countries that were originally colonized by the Spaniards.^[3]

Rank	Country/territory	Spanish-speaking population[1]	Area (km2)	Area (sq mi)
1	Mexico	130,118,356	1,964,375	761,610
2	United States[sn 1]	56,757,391	9,147,593	3,531,905
3	Colombia	51,609,474	1,141,748	440,831
4	Spain	47,615,034	505,944	195,365
5	Argentina	46,234,830	2,780,400	1,073,500
6	Peru	33,470,569	1,285,215	496,225
7	Venezuela	33,360,238	916,445	353,841
8	Chile	19,828,563	756,102	291,930
9	Guatemala	17,357,886	108,889	42,042
10	Ecuador	16,149,014	283,561	109,484
11	Bolivia	12,006,031	1,098,581	424,164
12	Cuba	11,305,652	109,884	42,426
13	Dominican Republic	10,621,938	48,671	18,792
14	Honduras	9,523,621	112,492	43,433
15	Paraguay	7,453,695	406,752	157,065
16	Nicaragua	6,779,100	130,374	50,338
17	El Salvador	6,550,389	21,041	8,124
18	Costa Rica	5,213,374	51,179	19,760
19	Panama	4,446,964	75,417	29,119
20	Uruguay	3,444,263	181,034	69,898
21	Puerto Rico	3,285,874	9,104	3,515
22	Equatorial Guinea	1,454,789	28,052	10,831
	Total	534,276,236	21,162,853	8,174,198

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The modern-day nationalities that live in the region of ancientHispania are thePortuguese, Spanish, Andorran andGibraltarian people.Historically, the modern country of Spain was formed by the accretion of several independentIberian kingdoms through dynastic inheritance, conquest and the will of the local elites. These kingdoms had their own nationalistic^{[clarification needed]} loyalties and political borders.

Today, there is no single Castilian–Spanish^{[clarification needed]} identity for the whole country. Spain is ade factoplurinational state.^{[citation needed]} Many Spanish citizens feel no conflict in recognising their multiple ethnic identities at the same time. Spain is a culturally heterogeneous country, home to a wide range of cultures, each one with its own customs and traditions. Some such cultures havetheir own language. Since the beginning of thetransition to democracy in Spain and the creation of the Spanishautonomous communities, afterFrancoist Spain, there have been many movements towards more autonomy (delegation of powers) in certain territories of the country, some with the aim of achieving full independence and others with the goal of improving the system of devolution and the state of the autonomies (or self-government entities).

The existence of multiple distinct cultures in Spain allows an analogy to be drawn to the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]} Using the term Spanish for someone of Spanish descent would then be expected to be equivalent to usingBriton to describe someone descending from some part of the United Kingdom. Cultures within the United Kingdom, such as English, Irish,Scottish, andWelsh, would then correspond in this analogy to cultures within Spain such asCastilian,Catalan,Galician andBasque among others. In contrast with Spain, because of centuries of gradual and mutual consolidation across the Iberian Peninsula, such distinctions tend to be blurred. It is a subtle, yet important, distinction.

In Spain, as in the United Kingdom, the economically dominant territories—Castile and England—spread their language for mutual communication. However, the political dominance in the United Kingdom tends to be sharper compared to Spain, where most ofmedieval realms do not correspond with the actual boundaries of the autonomous communities, and the crown was unified into a solemonarch.

Spanish is the most widely-spoken language of the Americas, as well as the official language in a great part of the Americas.

U.S. Hispanics are citizens of the United States whose ancestry or national origin is of any of the nations composing the Hispanosphere. A Hispanic person's status is independent from whether or not he or she speaks the Spanish language, for not all Hispanic Americans speak Spanish. A Hispanic person may be of any race (White, Amerindian, mixed, Black, Asian or Pacific Islander). As of 2013^[update] Hispanics accounted for 17.1% of the population, around 53.2 million people.^[4] This was an increase of 29% since 2004, when Hispanics were 14.1% of the population (around 41.3 million people). The Hispanic growth rate over the July 1, 2003 to July 1, 2004, period was 3.6% — higher than any other ancestral group in the United States — and more than three times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%). The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050, is 105.6 million people. According to this projection, Hispanics will constitute 25% of the nation's total population by the year 2050.^[5][6]

Historically, a continuous Hispanic presence in the territory of the United States has existed since the 16th century, earlier than any other group after theAmerindians. Spaniards pioneered the present-day United States. The first confirmed European landing on the continent was that ofJuan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 on the shore he christenedLa Florida. Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach theAppalachian Mountains, theMississippi River, theGrand Canyon, and theGreat Plains. Spanish ships sailed along theEast Coast, penetrating to present-dayBangor, Maine, and up thePacific Coast as far asOregon.

In 1540Hernando de Soto undertook an extensive exploration of the present United States. In the same yearFrancisco Vásquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Mexican Indians across today'sArizona–Mexico border and traveled as far as centralKansas, close to the exact geographic center of what is now the continental United States. Other Spanish explorers of the United States make up a long list that includes, among others,Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón,Pánfilo de Narváez,Sebastián Vizcaíno,Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo,Gaspar de Portolà,Pedro Menéndez de Avilés,Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca,Tristán de Luna y Arellano, andJuan de Oñate. In all, Spaniards probed half of today's lower 48 states before the first English colonization attempt atRoanoke Island in 1585.

The Spanish created the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States, atSt. Augustine, Florida, in 1565.Santa Fe, New Mexico also predatesJamestown, Virginia (founded in 1607) andPlymouth Colony (ofMayflower andPilgrims fame, founded in 1620). Later came Spanish settlements inSan Antonio,Tucson,San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, to name just a few. The Spanish even established aJesuitmission inVirginia'sChesapeake Bay 37 years before the founding of Jamestown.

Two iconic American stories have Spanish antecedents, too. Almost 80 years beforeJohn Smith's alleged rescue byPocahontas, a man by the name ofJuan Ortiz told of his remarkably similar rescue from execution by an Indian girl. Spaniards also held athanksgiving—56 years before the famous Pilgrimsfestival—when they feasted near St. Augustine with Florida Indians, probably on stewed pork and garbanzo beans. As late as 1783, at the end of theAmerican Revolutionary War, Spain held claim to roughly half of today's continental United States (seeNew Spain); in 1775, Spanish ships even reachedAlaska. From 1819 to 1848, the United States increased the nation's area by roughly a third of former Spanish and Mexican territory, including today's three most populous states: California,Texas, and Florida. Hispanics became the first American citizens in the newly acquiredSouthwest territory and remained the ancestral majority in several states until the 20th century, and a large minority in the 21st century.

Hispanic Americans have fought in all thewars of the United States and have earned some of the highest distinctions awarded to U.S. soldiers (list of Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients).^[7][8][9] Historic figures in the United States have been Hispanic from early times.

TheNational Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in the United States from September 15 to October 15.^[10]

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The people of Hispanophone countries encompass many different ethnic backgrounds. Though in countries like the United States, Hispanics may often be stereotyped as having a typicalMediterranean/Amerindian/Southern European appearance -olive skin, dark hair, and dark eyes.^[11][12]

Most Hispanics in the United States have their origins in countries such asEl Salvador,Cuba, and Mexico, with 90% of Salvadorans, 95% of Paraguayans, and 70%^[13] of Mexicans identifying as mestizo, with Mexico having the largest total mestizo population at over 66 million.^[14]

In the United States, Hispanics, regardless of self-identified racial background, are labeledHispanic by the U.S. census. They may have varying of European ancestry, such as Spanish origins, and Amerindian or African roots.^[15] From 1850 to 1920, the U.S. Census form did not distinguish between whites and Mexican Americans.^[16] In 1930, the U.S. Census form asked for "color or race", and census enumerators were instructed to writeW for white andMex for Mexican.^{[citation needed]} In 1940 and 1950, the census reverted its decision and made Mexicans be classified as white again and thus the instructions were to "Reportwhite (W) for Mexicans unless they were definitely of full Indigenous Indian or other non-white races (such as Black or Asian)."^[16])

Of the over 35 million Hispanics counted in theFederal 2000 Census,^{[citation needed]} 47.9% identified asWhite (termedWhite Hispanic by the Census Bureau); 42.2% some other race; 6.3% two or more races; 2% Black or African American; 1.2% American Indian and Alaska Native; 0.3% Asian; and 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.^[17] Even among those Hispanics who reported one race only, most would also possess at least some ancestral lineage from one or more other races, despite the fact that only 6.3% reported as such (this is also applicable to the non-Hispanics counted in the U.S. Census, although maybe in less proportion).

According to one study (Stephens et al. 2001), from the genetic perspective, Hispanics generally represent a differential mixture of European, Native American, and African ancestry, with the proportionate mix typically depending on country of origin.^[15]

The populations of Iberia (both Spain and Portugal), like all European populations, have received multiple other influences, even though they are still largely descended from the prehistoric European populations, and to a greater degree than any other major group.^[18]

In the former Spanish province ofEquatorial Guinea, although Portuguese and French are co-official languages, the majority of the population speak Spanish.^[19] There is a small minority of African people who possessed Spanish and other European ancestry. These individuals form less than 1% of the population.

Portions of the north coast ofMorocco were a former Spanish protectorate and Spanish remains spoken by about 1.7 million people as of 2018. This makes Morocco the country with the most Spanish speakers outside the Hispanophone world unless the United States is excluded.^[20] However, demand for Spanish and overall competency in the language has fallen since the start of the 21st century and the most popular foreign language is now English (as French is considered a second and mandatory language in the country).^[21]

Since theReconquista, Spain has held numerous emplacements in North Africa. Most of them were promptly lost, but to date, with an approximate population of 143,000 people, theautonomous cities ofCeuta andMelilla, which constitute the twoplazas de soberanía mayores (Major Territories under [Spanish] Sovereignty) remained Spanish, and theChafarinas Islands, thePeñón de Alhucemas and thePeñón de Vélez de la Gomera, which constitute the threeplazas de soberanía menores (Minor Territories under [Spanish] Sovereignty), still forming part of Spain. TheCanary Islands, a constituent part of Spain's main territorial subdivisions, are also located in North Africa.

Spanish is maintained as a secondary language alongside the official Arabic in theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a partially recognized state that claimsWestern Sahara, whose territory formerly comprised the Spanish colony ofSpanish Sahara and now is mostly occupied byMorocco. However, Spanish is not a native language in the territory, and the Moroccan government uses Arabic and French in its administration of Western Sahara and the number of Spanish speakers in the territory itself is rather trivial compared to the former two languages.^[22]

In thePhilippines, theSpanish Filipino population which mostly descends from those Spanish colonists who arrived during theSpanish colonial period remains influential in Filipino society despite its small numbers. However, the vast majority of Spanish Filipinos today no longer speak Spanish. Instead, most now exclusively speakTagalog or other local Philippine languages and English.^[23] Nevertheless, the only Spanish-based creole language in Asia calledChavacano was developed on the islands and is spoken by roughly a million people.

Section 7, Article XIV of the1987 Philippine Constitution specifies Spanish (along withArabic) a language to "be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis", while thePhilippine Academy of the Spanish Language (Spanish:Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española) remains the state regulating body for the language.Castilian Spanish is the sole dialectal standard taught in schools, whilePhilippine Spanish (the local variant of the language which developed during the colonial era) currently has a few thousand native speakers left and is close to extinction.^[24]

Despite its rapid decline in the 20th century, there has been a revival of interest in the Spanish language since the first decade of the 21st century among select circles. Under the rule of PresidentGloria Macapagal Arroyo (herself a fluent speaker), Spanish was re-introduced into theeducational system as an elective language in secondary schools. Nevertheless, the Spanish language's presence in the country and its cultural influence continues to decline and is no longer present in daily life outside the numerousloanwords of Spanish origin in Philippine languages.^[25]

Spanish is the official language ofEaster Island, a territorial possession of Chile inPolynesia.

TheMariana Islands (today split between theUnited States territory ofGuam and theCommonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) were formerly governed as a part of theSpanish East Indies, and thus manyChamorros possess some degree of Spanish admixture.

While most people living on these islands no longer speak Spanish, the nativeChamorro language exhibits a noticeable Spanish influence in its vocabulary. Many Chamorros have also preserved Hispanic cultural elements such asfiestas,cockfighting, and theCatholic faith despite having integrated with the American way of life.

Spanish surnames are still prevalent on Guam, it is spoken by Catholic people andPuerto Ricans, and the custom of women keeping their maiden names after marriage is a both byproduct of Spanish culture on these islands as well as thematrilineal structure of indigenousChamorro culture.

InAntarctica, there are only two civilian localities and both are inhabited primarily by native Spanish speakers. One of them is the ArgentineFortín Sargento Cabral, which has 66 inhabitants.^[27] The other is the Chilean town ofVilla Las Estrellas, which has a population of 150 inhabitants in summer and 80 inhabitants in winter. In each of them there is a school where students study and do research in Spanish. TheOrcadas Base, an Argentine scientific station, is the oldest base in all of Antarctica still in operation and the oldest with a permanent population (since 1907).

The following countries operate scientific bases in Antarctica:

Country	Permanent Research Stations	Summer Research Stations	Total	Map
Argentina	6	7	13
Chile	4	5	9
Uruguay	1	1	2
Spain	0	2	2
Peru	0	1	1
Ecuador	0	1	1

The Spanish and the Portuguese took the Christian faith to their colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia;Roman Catholicism remains the predominant religion amongst most Hispanics.^[28] A significant minority of Spanish speakers are also eitherProtestant^[29] or not affiliated with any religion.

Countries	Population Total	Christians %	Christian Population	Unaffiliated %	Unaffiliated Population	Other religions %	Other religions Population	Source
Argentina	43,830,000	85.4%	37,420,000	12.1%	5,320,000	2.5%	1,090,000	[30]
Bolivia	11,830,000	94.0%	11,120,000	4.1%	480,000	1.9%	230,000	[30]
Chile	18,540,000	88.3%	16,380,000	9.7%	1,800,000	2.0%	360,000	[30]
Colombia	52,160,000	92.3%	48,150,000	6.7%	3,510,000	1.0%	500,000	[30]
Costa Rica	5,270,000	90.8%	4,780,000	8.0%	420,000	1.2%	70,000	[30]
Cuba	11,230,000	58.9%	6,610,000	23.2%	2,600,000	17.9%	2,020,000	[30]
Dominican Republic	11,280,000	88.0%	9,930,000	10.9%	1,230,000	1.1%	120,000	[30]
Ecuador	16,480,000	94.0%	15,490,000	5.6%	920,000	0.4%	70,000	[30]
El Salvador	6,670,000	88.0%	5,870,000	11.2%	740,000	0.8%	60,000	[30]
Equatorial Guinea	860,000	88.7%	770,000	5.0%	40,000	6.3%	50,000	[30]
Guatemala	18,210,000	95.3%	17,360,000	3.9%	720,000	0.8%	130,000	[30]
Honduras	9,090,000	87.5%	7,950,000	10.5%	950,000	2.0%	190,000	[30]
Mexico	126,010,000	94.1%	118,570,000	5.7%	7,240,000	0.2%	200,000	[30]
Nicaragua	6,690,000	85.3%	5,710,000	13.0%	870,000	1.7%	110,000	[30]
Panama	4,020,000	92.7%	3,720,000	5.0%	200,000	2.3%	100,000	[30]
Paraguay	7,630,000	96.9%	7,390,000	1.1%	90,000	2.0%	150,000	[30]
Peru	32,920,000	95.4%	31,420,000	3.1%	1,010,000	1.5%	490,000	[30]
Philippines	109,035,343	92.4%	102,794,183	0.1%	111,249	5.8%	6,452,448	[30]
Puerto Rico[sn 1]	3,790,000	90.5%	3,660,000	7.3%	80,000	2.2%	40,000	[30]
Spain	48,400,000	75.2%	34,410,000	21.0%	10,190,000	3.8%	1,800,000	[30]
United States	333,287,557	63.0%	209,971,161	29.0%	96,653,392	8.0%	26,663,005	[30]
Uruguay	3,490,000	57.0%	1,990,000	41.5%	1,450,000	1.5%	50,000	[30]
Venezuela	33,010,000	89.5%	29,540,000	9.7%	3,220,000	0.8%	250,000	[30]

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