Today most of the world’s population live in the Spanish-speaking world.
There you will also find some of the largest metropolitan areas on the planet.
With some exceptions, most of these multi-million mega-cities are located in Central and South America.
1. Mexico City, Mexico
According to data from 2005, Greater Mexico City (the entire metropolitan area, including a large number of closely situated smaller settlements) has a population of approximately 22,681,726 people.
This makes the capital of Mexico the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world.
2. Buenos Aires, Argentina
According to the last official census from 2010, the population of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is 15,594,428 inhabitants.
This makes the Paris of Latin America the second largest Spanish-speaking city in the world.
3. Bogotá, Colombia
The third largest city in the list is the capital of Colombia, Bogotá.
The entire metropolitan area has a population of 10,763,453, more than 3 million of whom live outside the city itself, in much smaller and less-populated surrounding towns and villages.
4. Lima, Peru
According to data from 2007, Lima, the capital of Peru, is a huge city with a population of 8,472,935 people.
It’s the fourth largest Spanish-speaking city in the Americas and the largest city on the Pacific coast south of Los Angeles.
5. Santiago de Chile, Chile
The population of Santiago de Chile is around 5.5 million, and the entire metropolitan area is home to more than 7 million people.
The capital of Chile is now the fifth most populous Spanish-speaking city in the world.
6. Caracas, Venezuela
According to data from 2011, the entire population of Caracas is approximately 6,503,685 people.
The city, along with several smaller surrounding settlements, is the center of a large and very busy urban agglomeration on the coast of the Caribbean Sea.
7. Madrid, Spain
Madrid is a relatively smaller city than some of its “cousins” in Latin America.
However, it is the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world outside of the Americas.
According to Eurostat data, the population of the metropolitan area of Madrid is about 6,369,162.
8. Barcelona, Spain
The second largest city in Spain and one of the largest in Southern Europe is the center of a large metropolitan area with a population of about 5,375,749 people.
Moreover, the capital of Catalonia is also considered to be the most visited and preferred by tourists Spanish-speaking city on the planet.
9. Guadalajara, Mexico
According to 2010 data, the population of the urban agglomeration of Guadalajara is about 4,424,252.
This metropolitan area is the second largest in Mexico and in Central America as a whole.
10. Maracaibo, Venezuela
With its population of 3.75 million, the agglomeration of Maracaibo is the tenth largest Spanish-speaking urban area in the world and the second largest in Venezuela.
It is situated on the coast of the largest lake on the continent.
