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- "Spanish has
become the US's de facto second language. Nuevo Latino has taken
its rightful place in haute cuisine, the sounds of rock en
español and reggaeton have filtered up the charts,
and Latinos not only star in but own and manage major league baseball
teams. …The country's largest ethnic minorty, Hispanics promise
to help remake America in the 21st century as vitally as African
Americans did in the 20th." (TIME magazine, August 22,
2005)
- The Hispanic
community is the youngest population group in the United States. Today,
1 in every 3 Hispanics is under the age of 18, and 44.7% is under the
age of 9 years. (HACR 2002 Hispanics Today)
- Hispanics are
the largest U.S. minority group at more than 39 million.
(U.S. Census Bureau)
- 8.4 million
Hispanic/Latino families live in the U.S. (2002
Census)
- 29 million
residents aged 5 and over speak Spanish at home. (2000
Census)
- Spanish is
the language that the majority of Hispanics learned first because 71%
of Hispanics were born outside of the U.S. The majority of Hispanics
born in the U.S. also learned Spanish first (59%). Spanish was the first
language learned by 79% of first generation Hispanics. (comSource
Media Matrix June 2003)
- In 74% of
Hispanic households, Spanish is the language spoken most frequently.
Only 16% of homes speak English most frequently, and 10% of Hispanic
homes use both languages equally. (comSource
Media Matrix June 2003)
- By 2020, the
number of those who speak Spanish at home is projected to reach 41.7
million. (Global
Insight 2002)
- The estimated
purchasing power of all U.S. Hispanics in 2005 is US$764 billion. (Selig
Center for Economic Growth)
- The explosive
growth of Spanish speaking residents within the U.S. makes it likely
that many basic jobs will require or be enhanced by bilingual skills.
(The
Arizona Republic, Business Section, January 18, 2004)
- Foreign language
instruction in elementary schools has increased nearly 10% in 10 years.
(The
Center for Applied Linguistics, 2003)
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