Spanish speakers
This posts answers the question how many Spanish speakers there are in the United States. I was curious myself about this question. All I hear on the news is about the growing Hispanic population and how I should study this language. Actually learning it, to some level, is on my list of things I would like to do.
Spanish language and influence is all over the USA
According to the 2000 census there was about 38 million people who used the Spanish language as their first language. By the 2010 census it is estimated that there will be about 50 million native Spanish speakers in the US. The demographic trend is pretty strong as Hispanics tend to have more children and at a younger age than the average in the USA.
I knew a Spanish psychologist who use to work with youths to help slow this trend. She said it will be very hard in the near future and the trend will continue, because its culture and economics both that perpetuate teens to have children. I think by about 2060 Spanish speakers will be the majority in the USA.
The following is a list of states which have the highest percentage of Spanish speakers:
Puerto Rico 3,900,128 95.21% – I have been here, it is beautiful and thought of living here. I live in Cold wintry Krakow, Poland now.
New Mexico 823,352 43.27% – Never been but a very exotic spiritual state.
California 12,442,626 34.72% – Nice state but very pricey.
Texas 7,781,211 34.63% – Too flat for me.
Arizona 1,608,698 28.03% – I am not a desert person.
Nevada 445,622 19.27% – Same as above
Florida 3,304,832 19.01% – I would consider living in Fl.
I guess my point is the warmest states in the USA and this is a good reason why to learn Spanish.
Future of Spanish in the United States
In the US it is the most commonly studied language in school of course. 53% of the people in the US study Spanish as their target foreign language, compared to the next biggest language French at about 15%.
There is no official language in the USA. You can read my thoughts about this.
California is the only state that has official bill of rights for this language, while most states offer bilingual services. I think the US will without a doubt be a bilingual country. The reason is that generation after generation of Spanish people in the USA have limited English proficiency. I think the statistic is over 50% of the Spanish people living in the US including third generation people, do not speak English well at all and can barely read or write in English wow that surprised me. But I live in Poland and meet many Americans in Europe who never ever will learn the language of the country they live in. So I understand this. Economic pursuit comes first, as it is often a matter of practicality.
There is a movement in the US for English as the official language, but this will not work as the Spanish population is reaching 20% in the US. Therefore, politicians do not want to alienated this large minority. Like with all large demographic trends in the world there is no way you can get excited either way about it as they are such large scale changes in society that laws and politics will do nothing. Rather, the best thing to do is just be an observer or arm chair philosopher.
Some people say that the south western region of the USA will break away someday. The rational is demographics and history. It use to be part of New Spain of course. This is not true, there will be no civil war. Hispanics in the USA are generally peaceful people with no great ambition for such things. Rather they are more economically focused. With free movement of labor and capital then there is not need to revolution. The Americas will be like the EU. Like the EU there will be a few languages represented in the USA. It works in Europe and it will work in the USA. That is the future of Spanish in the USA.
More pages which answer the question: How many Spanish speakers in the USA
Spanish language speakers in the USA
Spanish in the US -PBS is a little partial but a good article.
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