The percentage of Latinos residing in the United States who say they speak Spanish at home was reduced by 5% between 2006 and 2015, in contrast to the increase in the number of Hispanics living in the country, according to a study released today.
While in 2006, 78% of Latinos residing in the United States claimed to speak Spanish in the privacy of their homes, in 2015 this figure had been reduced to 73%, according to research carried out by the Pew Studies Center. .
The report highlights that in 2015 a total of 37 million Spanish speakers resided in the country, which consolidates Castilian as the second most spoken language in the United States, only behind English.
This figure represents a significant jump in just a decade, since ten years earlier there were 31 million residents in the country who defined themselves as Latinos.
The decline in the use of Spanish at home is a phenomenon that is having special relevance in some of the major metropolitan areas in the United States, according to the study.
In California, in the triangle formed by the localities of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Anaheim, which with 4.42 million Hispanics represents the metropolitan region where more Latinos live in the country, the reduction in the use of Spanish at home was a 3 %.
In the state of New York, the metropolitan area consisting of the city of the same name, Newark and Jersey, where an estimated 3.55 million Latinos live, the fall was 5%.
The case of the metropolitan region composed of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, in Florida, is striking, where despite the 2% reduction between 2005 and 2015, 90% of the Hispanics living in the area speak Spanish at home. .
Despite the decline in the use of Spanish at home, the Latino population believes that speaking this language can be a vital skill and highlights the importance of continuing to speak to the next generations.
