A record 33.2 million Hispanics in the U.S. speak English proficiently, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2013, this group made up 68% of all Hispanics ages 5 and older, up from 59% in 2000.
At the same time that the share of Latinos who speak English proficiently is growing, the share that speaks Spanish at home has been declining over the last 13 years. In 2013, 73% of Latinos ages 5 and older said they speak Spanish at home, down from 78% who said the same in 2000. Despite this decline, a record 35.8 million Hispanics speak Spanish at home, a number that has continued to increase as the nation's Hispanic population has grown.
These shifts coincide with the rise of U.S.-born Hispanics as a share of the nation's Hispanic population, and the slowdown in immigration to the U.S. from Latin America. In 2013, U.S.-born Hispanics outnumbered foreign-born Hispanics by nearly two-to-one—35 million to 19 million—and made up a growing share (65%) of the nation's Hispanic population. They are also much younger, with a median age of 19 years compared with 40 among immigrant Hispanics. At the same time, immigration from Latin America, primarily Mexico, has slowed, leading to fewer Spanish-speaking new immigrant arrivals and a more settled U.S. Hispanic immigrant population.
As a result, since 2000, U.S. Hispanic population growth has been driven primarily by U.S. births rather than the arrival of new immigrants.
Fully 89% of U.S.-born Latinos spoke English proficiently in 2013, up from 72% in 1980. This gain is due in part to the growing share of U.S.-born Latinos who live in households where only English is spoken. By contrast, the share of foreign-born Latinos who speak English proficiently is little changed since 1980, even though the number that is English-proficient has grown. In 2013, 34% of foreign-born Latinos spoke English proficiently, numbering 6.5 million. In 1980, that share was 31% and numbered 1.3 million.
Looked at another way, just 5% of foreign-born Hispanics spoke only English at home in 2013, about the same share (4%) as in 1980. And 29% of foreign-born Hispanics speak Spanish (or another non-English language) at home, but say they speak English “very well,” a share also little changed from the 27% who said so in 1980.
Even though English proficiency is on the rise among Hispanics, there are many who speak English less than very well—or not at all. According to the Pew Research analysis, 12.5 million Hispanics in 2013 said they speak English but rate their speaking ability as less than “very well.” And an additional 3.2 million say they do not speak English at all. Together, these groups of Hispanics make up one-third (32%) of all Hispanics ages 5 and older.
Three-in-four Hispanics who do not speak English have less than a high school education, compared with 52% of those who speak English but speak the language less than “very well” and 18% of Hispanics who are English-proficient.
One-in-four Latinos speak only English at home. And when it comes to consuming news media, among Latino adults, a growing share get their news in English, while a declining share do so in Spanish. Even so, for Hispanics overall, 95% say it is important that future generations of Hispanics living in the U.S. be able to speak Spanish. Nearly as many, 87%, say that Hispanic immigrants need to learn English to succeed in the U.S.
Spanish language use among U.S. Hispanics
As of 2013, 73% of Hispanics spoke Spanish at home, a share little changed since 1980 (75%), but down from its peak of 78% in 2000. Nonetheless, the number of Hispanics who speak Spanish at home continues to grow, as the Hispanic population continues to grow. In 2013, 35.8 million Hispanics ages 5 and older did so, up from 34.3 million in 2010, 24.6 million in 2000 and 9.8 million in 1980.
About 15.7 million Latinos ages 5 and older who speak Spanish at home speak English less than “very well” or not at all.
Among Hispanics ages 5 and older born in the U.S., there has been a sharp decline in the share that does not speak English proficiently.
In 1980, 28% spoke Spanish at home and said they did not speak English proficiently. This share had dropped to just 11% by 2013. By contrast, among foreign-born Hispanics over the same time period, there has been no decrease in the share that speaks Spanish at home and does not speak English proficiently. In 1980, 67% of foreign-born Latinos spoke Spanish at home but also did not speak English proficiently, compared with 66% in 2013.
Source: Pew Research Center, English Proficiency on the Rise Among Latinos by Jens Manuel Krogstad, Renee Stepler and Mark Hugo Lopez, May 12, 2015.
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