As Hispanic population rises, Spanish language use falls

In the 1990s, the U.S. Hispanic population grew annual by 5.8%. that annual rate slipped top 4.4% between 2000 and 2007, and to 2.4% between 2007 and 2014. (Go here).

About 40 million persons speak Spanish at home. (This is the large majority of persons speaking other than English at home.) Among immigrant parents, 97% speak Spanish to their children. Among second generation parents, 71% do. Among 3rd or later generations, 49% do. (Go here).

88% say it is important to them that future generations of Hispanics living in the U.S. be able to speak Spanish, with vast majorities holding this view across generations.

What language is dominant?

While 61% of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. are Spanish dominant (and another 32% are bilingual), the share who are Spanish dominant drops to 6% among second-generation Hispanics and to less than 1% among third or higher generation Hispanics. Meanwhile, the share of Hispanics who are English dominant rises across generations: Just 7% of immigrant Hispanics are English dominant, a share that rises to 75% among third-generation Hispanics.

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