{"id":11635,"date":"2017-10-31T11:31:04","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T16:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/use-of-spanish-declines-among-latinos-in-major-u-s-metros\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:15:51","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:15:51","slug":"use-of-spanish-declines-among-latinos-in-major-u-s-metros","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2017\/10\/31\/use-of-spanish-declines-among-latinos-in-major-u-s-metros\/","title":{"rendered":"Use of Spanish declines among Latinos in major U.S. metros"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

More than 37 million Latinos in the U.S. speak Spanish at home, making it the country\u2019s most common non-English language<\/a>. But while the number<\/em> of Latinos who speak Spanish at home continues to increase due to the overall growth<\/a> of the Latino population, the share <\/em>of Latinos who speak the language has declined over the past decade or so: 73% of Latinos spoke Spanish at home in 2015, down from 78% in 2006, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.<\/p>\n\n

The national decline in Spanish use among Latinos extended to all of the top 25 U.S. metro areas with the largest population of Latinos ages 5 and older. The San Antonio-New Braunfels and Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale metro areas had some of the largest declines, with the shares who spoke Spanish in each declining by 9 percentage points. Some of the smallest declines came in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro areas, where the share who spoke Spanish at home declined by about 2 percentage points each from 2006 to 2015.\u00a0(Click here<\/a> for a sortable table of Spanish use by metro area.)<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Despite this drop-off in use, most Latinos agree that speaking Spanish is a vital skill. In a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, nearly all Latinos said it was important<\/a> that the next generation of Latinos in the U.S. speak Spanish. Yet many Latinos (71%)\u00a0say it\u2019s not necessary<\/a> to speak Spanish to be considered Latino, a 2015 survey found.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

About half of all Latinos who spoke Spanish at home in 2015 lived in the 10 metro areas with the largest populations of Spanish-speaking Latinos. These metro areas accounted for about 18.5 million Latino Spanish speakers. (Just three states \u2013 California, Texas and Florida \u2013 included 57% of Spanish-speaking Latinos in the U.S.)<\/p>\n\n

The use of Spanish by Latinos can vary greatly by metro area, in part because immigrants are much more likely<\/a> to speak Spanish than those born in the U.S. The large presence of immigrants in the Miami metro area, for example, helps explain why a far greater share of Latinos there speak Spanish than in metro areas like Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, where the vast majority of Latinos are U.S. born.<\/p>\n\n

About nine-in-ten Hispanics spoke Spanish at home in Miami (90%) and McAllen (90%), the highest rates in the nation among the top 25 Latino metro areas. The Latino population in Miami had the highest share of immigrants (64%) among the nation\u2019s largest metro areas. In McAllen, immigrants made up only 32% of Latinos, though the metro area\u2019s shared border with Mexico helps explain the widespread use of Spanish there.<\/p>\n\n

By contrast, in the Denver metro area, 57% of Latinos spoke Spanish, the lowest share among the metro areas analyzed. Sacramento and San Antonio also had low shares, with about 60% of Latinos speaking Spanish at home in each metro area. These areas had some of the lowest immigrant shares among their Latino populations \u2013 29% in Denver, 30% for Sacramento and 16% in San Antonio \u2013 which helps account for their low Spanish-speaking shares.<\/p>\n\n

Spanish use has also become less widespread among Latinos in the nation\u2019s two largest metro areas by Latino population. In Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, home to more than 5.5 million Latinos ages 5 and older, 80% spoke Spanish at home in 2015, a decline of 3 percentage points from 2006. New York-Newark-Jersey City (3.6 million Latinos ages 5 and older) saw an even larger decline, with the share who spoke Spanish dropping from 85% in 2006 to 80% in 2015.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>Spanish language use in major U.S. metro areas<\/h3>\n\n
Spanish speaking at home has declined in top 25 metros with largest Hispanic population<\/i><\/h5>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Metro area<\/th>\nSpanish-speaking population (2006)<\/th>\n% of Hispanics speaking Spanish at home (2006)<\/th>\nSpanish-speaking population (2015)<\/th>\n% of Hispanics speaking Spanish at home (2015)<\/th>\nPercentage point change, 2006-15<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA<\/td>\n341,881<\/td>\n86%<\/td>\n429,651<\/td>\n80%<\/td>\n-6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Austin-Round Rock, TX<\/td>\n290,694<\/td>\n71%<\/td>\n388,989<\/td>\n66%<\/td>\n-5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH<\/td>\n250,265<\/td>\n81%<\/td>\n350,968<\/td>\n76%<\/td>\n-5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI<\/td>\n1,359,455<\/td>\n84%<\/td>\n1,478,308<\/td>\n77%<\/td>\n-6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX<\/td>\n1,165,796<\/td>\n83%<\/td>\n1,426,774<\/td>\n79%<\/td>\n-4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO<\/td>\n283,918<\/td>\n60%<\/td>\n344,245<\/td>\n57%<\/td>\n-4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
El Paso, TX<\/td>\n472,168<\/td>\n88%<\/td>\n518,138<\/td>\n83%<\/td>\n-5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fresno, CA<\/td>\n257,795<\/td>\n69%<\/td>\n303,248<\/td>\n66%<\/td>\n-3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX<\/td>\n1,336,720<\/td>\n84%<\/td>\n1,690,224<\/td>\n77%<\/td>\n-6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV<\/td>\n333,460<\/td>\n79%<\/td>\n446,552<\/td>\n76%<\/td>\n-3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA<\/td>\n4,239,233<\/td>\n83%<\/td>\n4,429,478<\/td>\n80%<\/td>\n-3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX<\/td>\n504,184<\/td>\n92%<\/td>\n620,426<\/td>\n90%<\/td>\n-2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL<\/td>\n1,762,993<\/td>\n92%<\/td>\n2,208,303<\/td>\n90%<\/td>\n-2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA<\/td>\n3,145,559<\/td>\n85%<\/td>\n3,555,706<\/td>\n80%<\/td>\n-5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL<\/td>\n329,967<\/td>\n84%<\/td>\n501,421<\/td>\n79%<\/td>\n-5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD<\/td>\n239,852<\/td>\n75%<\/td>\n332,952<\/td>\n67%<\/td>\n-8%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ<\/td>\n790,635<\/td>\n74%<\/td>\n823,349<\/td>\n66%<\/td>\n-9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA<\/td>\n1,150,035<\/td>\n72%<\/td>\n1,393,308<\/td>\n68%<\/td>\n-4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sacramento–Roseville–Arden-Arcade, CA<\/td>\n203,289<\/td>\n61%<\/td>\n260,441<\/td>\n59%<\/td>\n-2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX<\/td>\n669,898<\/td>\n69%<\/td>\n709,015<\/td>\n60%<\/td>\n-9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
San Diego-Carlsbad, CA<\/td>\n612,812<\/td>\n78%<\/td>\n742,116<\/td>\n74%<\/td>\n-4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA<\/td>\n571,628<\/td>\n76%<\/td>\n666,058<\/td>\n71%<\/td>\n-5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA<\/td>\n297,222<\/td>\n75%<\/td>\n322,811<\/td>\n70%<\/td>\n-5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tampa-St, Petersburg-Clearwater, FL<\/td>\n265,207<\/td>\n77%<\/td>\n367,947<\/td>\n74%<\/td>\n-4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV<\/td>\n459,512<\/td>\n84%<\/td>\n683,730<\/td>\n82%<\/td>\n-2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
U.S. total<\/b><\/td>\n30,835,183<\/b><\/td>\n78%<\/b><\/td>\n37,356,761<\/b><\/td>\n73%<\/b><\/td>\n-5%<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n
Notes: Includes only Hispanics ages 5 and older.\nSource: Pew Research Center analysis of the 2006 and 2015 American Community Survey (1% IPUMS).<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The share of U.S. Latinos who speak the language has declined over the past decade or so: 73% of Latinos spoke Spanish at home in 2015, down from 78% in 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":302,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,144],"bylines":[629,929],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[529],"class_list":["post-11635","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-hispanics-latinos-and-language","category-racial-ethnic-identity","bylines-jens-manuel-krogstad","bylines-mark-hugo-lopez","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-global-migration-and-demography"],"label":"Short 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