Why Spanish is a popular language? As Spanish is taught in many secondary schools and universities, Spanish-speaking people can also enjoy a variety of newspapers, magazines, and radio programs.
Whitehouse.gov has a Spanish-language version of the website. Many speeches by high-ranking government officials are translated into Spanish. A politician who is fluent in Spanish will most likely speak in Spanish if they are speaking to Hispanics.
Spanish is the most widely spoken foreign language, despite the fact that it is not an official language of the United States. This is due to the lack of an official national language. Only Puerto Rico is an exception, where Spanish is the language of government.
It is rare to find labels that display information in three different languages, namely English, Spanish and French, mainly because of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
How Many Americans Speak Spanish?
It is not surprising that people of all languages and cultures live in the United States, as it is the largest country on earth. It is for this reason that the United States has been referred to as “a melting pot” – a place in which many cultures and languages coexist and often merge and form new ones.
The United States doesn’t have an official language. However, English is most commonly spoken. Spanish comes in second. Have you ever thought about how many Americans speak Spanish fluently? The answer is below.
Spanish as Second Largest Language in the US
Spanish is the second-most commonly spoken language after English in the United States. According to the American Community Survey (ACS), 38,3 million people aged five and older speak Spanish at home.
This number excludes Puerto Rico, which has 3.6 million native Spanish speakers. In the United States there are 45 million Hispanophones, including first- and second language speakers as well as six million Spanish language learners. Outside of Mexico, United States has largest Spanish-speaking population. About half of the Spanish-speaking population in the United States is also fluent in English.
The language is becoming more important in politics, business and trade. Spanish is not only an official language of New Mexico and Puerto Rico but is also the second most commonly spoken language of 43 states, including the District of Columbia.
Hispanics, Latinos and Latinos accounted for 17% in 2012 of the US population. The United States is home to 38 million Hispanophones. This makes it the largest Spanish-speaking group outside Mexico. Research shows that 19% of Hispanics are bilingual, while 9% only speak Spanish. 55% have a low level of English proficiency, and 17% speak both Spanish and English. Spanish speakers in the United States outnumber those who speak Hawaiian, French and Native American languages.
US is World’s fourth Largest Spanish Speaking Country
According to “Instituto Cervantes”, an estimate by the United Nations, there are approximately 493 millions people who speak Spanish as a native language. This is second only to Mandarin Chinese.Highest number of native Spanish speaker’s country is Mexico. The United States, ranked fourth, has 40 times more Spanish speakers than any other non-official Spanish speaking country.
The Institute estimates that by 2060, 27,5% of US citizens will be Hispanic, making it the second largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world. This pattern goes back to the Spanish colonization, and continues with migrations from Mexico and other southern countries.
The United States is increasingly valuing Spanish language proficiency due to the economic ties with Mexico and purchasing power of Hispanics. The US-Mexico relation is often characterized by migration, despite economic links. This has increased recently as a result global issues and imbalances.
Statistics-Spanish in the US
Let’s begin with some numbers. With a population of 336 million, the United States is third in terms of world population after India and China. Of the 53 million Americans, around 41 million are native Spanish speakers. Over 12 million are bilingual.
This figure is compared to nations like Spain and Colombia where Spanish is an official language. Spain has approximately 47 million citizens while Colombia has around 51 million.
The number of Spanish-speaking residents is still smaller even when you include speakers of French, Hawaiian and other Native American languages.
Top 10 States Where Spanish is Spoken
State-by-state, the distribution of Spanish-speaking individuals varies. Some states have a lower percentage of people who speak Spanish while others have a higher percentage.
Take a look at the top 10 states where Spanish is spoken.
1. Texas
Around 30% of the population, or about 8 million people speaks Spanish.
2. California
Around 10 million or 28% of the population speaks Spanish.
3. New Mexico
Spanish is spoken by approximately 550,000 New Mexicans or 28% of their population.
4. Nevada
In Nevada, approximately 21% or 560,000 people speak Spanish.
5. Florida
About 4 million Spanish speakers make up around 20.9%.
6. Arizona
More than 1.3 million individuals or more than 20 percent of the population speak Spanish.
7. New Jersey
There are approximately 1.34 million Spanish-speaking people in the country, or 15.9% of its population.
8. New York
In New York, approximately 2.8 million people, or 15 percent of the population speak Spanish.
9. Illinois
About 1.6 million Illinois residents speak Spanish. This is approximately 13.2%.
10. Colorado
Nearly 600,000 Colorado residents, or about 12% of its population, speak Spanish.
Correcting Myths About US Spanish
Spanish was the original language spoken in the United States. Since 400 years, both languages have co-existed and immigrants from all over the world continue to add new variants.
Recent local, national, and regional news reports have perpetuated the myth that native Spanish-speaking Americans are only now starting to populate large portions of the United States. Census data from early 1990s shows an increase in U.S. Hispanic populations, despite the reality that Hispanic groups have been present in the United States and speak various forms of Spanish for over four centuries.
Many Americans are surprised to discover that Spanish was spoken in the United States before English. In terms of longevity and continuity, the Spanish language in the United States is only second to Native American languages. These were spoken for hundreds of years before colonization.
Hispanics have been living in the Southwest in different places for centuries. They have spoken distinct forms of Spanish alongside English. In some large urban areas in the United States, Spanish and English have been co-existing for decades.
Brief History of Spanish in the US
In 1513, Ponce de Leon led the Spanish to present-day United States. They built their first permanent settlement in San Agustin in Florida in 1565. They explored the Atlantic coast with zeal between 1520 and 1570. They then focused their attention on the West, Southwest and Southwest. This left a cultural and linguistic legacy in states such as Arizona, California and Colorado.
The Spanish first explored this area in 1540, with Francisco Coronado. They continued their explorations in 1598, with Juan de Onate. Santa Fe founded New Mexico in 1605. By the middle of the nineteenth century, it is estimated that up to 100,000 Spanish-speaking people lived in this area.
Anglo-English speakers settled in the Southwest despite the growing Spanish-speaking population. This is especially true in Texas today. Texas joined the Union in 1845 after the Texas Revolution of 1835, which led to the Mexican-American War of 1846-47. In 1848, the United States annexed a vast territory as a result of the war’s aftermath.
The westward expansion, driven by the idea of “manifest destination,” led to the spread of English in North America and the marginalization of Spanish as the dominant tongue. Spanish was still spoken in some areas of the Southwest, but it evolved into regional dialects that Hispanics use today.
Spanish is still a major language spoken in the United States.
Variations of Spanish Language in the US
Many native English speakers mistakenly believe that “Spanish” in the United States is one entity, similar to American English. Sociolinguists have shown that American English has a wide range of dialects, but American Spanish is not as well-known.
Spanish is a diverse language because of the many groups of Spanish-speaking immigrants who settled in America. Iberia, despite being a small peninsula, has had a rich history of linguistic diversity. The founder effect is a result of the migration of populations from different parts of Spain to the New World. They brought with them multiple varieties of Spanish.
For example, linguists have discovered that there are several Spanish dialects spoken in the United States. Each of these has traits that date back to 16th and 17th century Spain. Diphthongization is the merging of two vowel sound into one vocalic segment. Colorado Spanish has a more primitive form of monophthongal sounds than the later diphthongal ones.
This sound has evolved over time. This development is still evident in many terms of Coloradan Spanish. The United States has other variants of Spanish, including New Mexican, Arizonan and Texan. These varieties developed separately, resulting with distinct linguistic features. They include consonant group reduction and word-final aspiration.
The Spanish dialects of the United States are also different due to the exchanges that have taken place with Native American languages. The founder effect is not responsible for all Spanish dialects spoken in the United States.
There are many variations of Spanish, including those derived from the founder’s effect. These include Cuban, Puerto Rican and Mexican Spanish dialects as well as other Spanish-speaking regions.
Spanish is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of dialects in the United States. These dialects were influenced by a number of social and historical circumstances over America’s 400-year history.
Spanish-English Coexistence
It is important to dispel the myth that Spanish poses a threat to English, despite its growing diversity and importance in the United States of America in the 21st century. In California, however, it appears that the Spanish tense system has become simpler (Silva Corvalan 1991). Moreover, the number of immigrant language speakers often declines with each successive generation.
Even in areas where Spanish is flourishing, some localities are showing signs of a possible shift in the language used by some speakers.
Preliminary research indicates that Spanish might not be a long-term language among Miami Cubans. This calls into question earlier assumptions. Many young Mexican-Americans of the second generation in Raleigh, N.C. where the Hispanic community increased by 400% between 1990 and 2000 choose to communicate with their classmates and other siblings in English despite the vibrant Spanish-speaking culture.
For many Hispanics the benefits of fluency in English may outweigh the cultural, family, and social benefits that they would receive from maintaining Spanish.
Conclusion
It is important to note that, despite English being the most commonly used language in the United States of America, no official language is recognized. If an official language was to be established, it would likely include both English as well as Spanish, given that the numbers of people stated earlier.
Spanish is more than just a way to represent numbers. Many students, especially youngsters and young adults, actively study Spanish in educational settings. Spanish-language radio and publications are available, as is a Spanish version of the White House website.
Several product labels contain information both in English and Spanish. It is evident that Spanish is a major language in the United States.
This page is intended to provide an answer to those who are curious about the number of Spanish-speaking people in the country. If you’re interested in learning more about the languages of other countries, we suggest you check out our blog.
FAQs
How Many People in the United States are Fluent in Spanish?
Although Spanish isn’t an official language in the United States, it’s spoken by 42 million Americans as their first and second language. Percentage-wise, over 41.7 million individuals (about 12.5 percent of the population) speak Spanish as a first language, and that figure is growing. In addition, nearly 15 million Americans speak Spanish as their second language.
Is Spanish Becoming More Popular in the United States?
Spanish is the most widely spoken non-English language among Americans aged 5 and over, with more than 37 million speakers. The number of Spanish speakers has increased by 233% in the last 30 years, from 11 million to 37 million.
Why Spanish is Spoken in the United States?
The Spanish colonized America before the English founded Jamestown. Spanish explorers arrived in the United States in the 16th century. In 1565 they founded a permanent settlement in St. Augustine in Florida.
Please follow us on facebook and instagram.
For more information visit our home page.