Arabic-Speaking Countries Quiz

Which countries count?

A country counts when the language is an official national language: named in its constitution or laws (de jure), or, where the law names none, the language its national government works in (de facto). A language that is widely spoken but not official does not count, nor does one that is official only in a region. We use the same 197 countries as our other quizzes: the 193 UN members, Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan. Territories such as Puerto Rico are grey on the map.

Arabic has around 400 million speakers. Everyday dialects differ a lot from country to country, while Modern Standard Arabic is shared in writing, schools and the news.

Borderline cases

• Chad (counted): Arabic is official alongside French, though Chad is not in the Arab League.
• Eritrea (counted): No language is official in law; Arabic is one of the three working languages of government.
• Somalia (counted): The 2012 provisional constitution names Somali the official language and Arabic the second language; Somalia is in the Arab League.
• Comoros and Djibouti (counted): Both have Arabic as an official language, alongside French (and Comorian), and are in the Arab League.
• Israel (not counted): Arabic was an official language until 2018, when a Basic Law gave it a “special status” instead.
• South Sudan (not counted): Juba Arabic is the most widely used common language, but English is the only official language.
• Western Sahara (not counted): Its status is disputed and it is not one of the 197 countries, so it is grey on the map.

All 24 countries where Arabic is official

Africa (12): Algeria, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia

Asia (12): Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

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