Spanish Speaking America
he United States is now the fifth biggest Spanish speaking country in the world, according to The Economist magazine, but according to The Economist magazine, the trend may have peaked.
More excerpts on The Economist story here: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2026/02/06/america-may-be-reaching-peak-spanish
“Babbel, which makes a language-teaching app, says that the share of its American users studying Spanish has shot up from 26% to 60% from 2012 to 2025. The company notes that Spanish podcasts are gaining listeners, Spanish-speaking artists are winning more Oscar nominations and Spanish-speaking books are being checked out in growing numbers from libraries, among other indicators.
Such trends sharpen a decades-old fear that America is becoming a bilingual country, fundamentally different from the one most Americans knew.
The number of Spanish-speakers in America will probably plateau, and eventually reverse, for two reasons. The obvious one is immigration policy. Under President Trump the flow of immigrants from Latin America has become a trickle. And ICE is deporting as many illegal (and sometimes legal) immigrants as it can. The crackdown will no doubt ease under a future Democratic administration, but America will probably not be as welcoming as it once was.
Another trend is less visible and as important. The longer Latino families stay in America, the less Spanish they speak. According to Pew, a pollster, 69% of second-generation Latino immigrants—that is, the first generation born in America—speak Spanish. That drops to 34% of the third generation. Pew does not survey later generations, but overall just 57% of American-born Latinos speak Spanish.
In contrast to many English-speakers, Spanish-speakers worry about the fate of their language in America. “No sabo kids” don’t speak Spanish or speak it badly. (No sabo is “Spanglish” for “I don’t know”. A majority of non-Spanish-speaking Latinos admit that they have been shamed by other Latinos for not speaking it. But 87% of American-born Latinos say that speaking Spanish is not necessary to be considered Latino.
America’s assimilation machine has, over the centuries, turned huge waves of Germans and Italians into monoglot Americans. For a while, thanks to bilingual schools and Spanish radio and television stations, it looked like Latinos might be the exception. They’re not. Mr Trump won nearly half of the Latino vote in 2024; 36% of Latinos support making English the official language. Spanish is under threat in America, not English.”
Source: The Economist (Read Here)
Destinations: United States / Latin America / Central America and the Caribbean
