<P> Spanish has no official recognition in the Central American nation of Belize, a Commonwealth realm where English is the official national language . However, the country shares land borders with Spanish - speaking Mexico and Guatemala and, per the 2010 Belizean census, Spanish is spoken by a sizable portion of the population; 30% claim Spanish as a mother tongue and about 50% of the population has working knowledge of the language . </P> <P> The Spanish language is not official but also holds a special status (in the education system, the media, and some official documents) in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, which share land borders with Spain . </P> <P> 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 tiny minority of Spanish speakers in the US trace their language back to those times; the overwhelming majority of speakers come from recent immigration . Only in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado has Spanish maintained 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 for education in the U.S. state of New Mexico . With over 50 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 . In the United States, the language is regulated by the North American Academy of the Spanish Language . </P> <P> Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of the Hispanic period in 1565 and through independence until a constitutional change in 1973 . However, President Ferdinand Marcos had Spanish redesigned as an official language under Presidential Decree No. 156, dated 15 March 1973 and Spanish remained official until 1987, when it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language . </P>

Where are the majority of spanish-speaking countries located