The Status of the Spanish Language in the United States at the Beginning of the 21st Century 1

Abstract

This study presents population projections for different linguistic components of the Spanish language group, that is, for English dominant bilinguals, Spanish dominant bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals. The population model combines parameters obtained from the U.S. Bureau of the Census for nonlinguistic characteristics with linguistic parameters estimated from the 1976 Survey of Income and Education. The number of persons speaking Spanish on a regular basis will climb to an estimated 16.6 million persons at the turn of the century. Further analysis reveals, however, that an additional 4.5 million persons will have left the group by ceasing to speak Spanish. In fact, in the absence of continued immigration, this language minority cannot maintain its current size and will undergo progressively more rapid decline over the course of time.