Fifteen of the new appointees are under 80, making them eligible to enter a conclave to elect the Pope's successor.
Pope Francis said the appointment of cardinals from 14 countries from every continent in the world showed the Vatican's "inseparable link" with Catholic Churches around the world.
They will be formally installed on 14 February.
Pope Francis also announced on Sunday that he would lead of meeting of all cardinals to discuss reform of the Roman Curia, the Vatican's administrative body, on 12 and 13 February.
The 20 new cardinals
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti (France)
Archbishop Manuel Jose Macario do Nascimento Clemente (Portugal)
Archbishop Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel (Ethiopia)
Archbishop John Atcherley Dew (New Zealand)
Archbishop Edoardo Menichelli (Italy)
Archbishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon (Vietnam)
Archbishop Alberto Suarez Inda (Mexico)
Archbishop Charles Maung Bo (Myanmar)
Archbishop Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij (Thailand)
Archbishop Francesco Montenegro (Italy).
Archbishop Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet (Uruguay)
Archbishop Ricardo Blazquez Perez (Spain).
Bishop Jose Luis Lacunza Maestrojuan (Panama)
Bishop Arlindo Gomes Furtado, (Capo Verde).
Bishop Soane Patita Paini Mafia (Tonga)
Archbishop emeritus Jose de Jesus Pimiento Rodríguez (Colombia)*
Titular Archbishop Luigi De Magistris (Italy)*
Titular Archbishop Karl-Joseph Rauber (Germany)*
Archbishop emeritus Luis Hector Villalba (Argentina)*
Bishop emeritus Julio Duarte Langa (Mozambique)*
* Cardinal emeritus, without voting rights
