The latest US census bureau released in March, 2011 has stated that the Spanish speaking population in US has grown beyond 50 million. Besides English, Spanish is the next most widely taught and adapted foreign language. Most of the parts of Latin America and Mexico have largest Spanish speaking population. After Spain, it is Mexico which has the largest Spanish speaking population. The Census also forecast that the Hispanics population may make up to the one third of the U.S population.
It is found that the population rise is mainly due to the growth in the number of child births, rather than immigration. Till 2010, the Hispanics population under the age 18 has grown to 23% form 17% in 2000. In 2000, 81% of the Spanish speaking population is spread over 9 states – California, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois and Florida. But now it is reduced to 75% which indicates the wide spread of the Spanish population, particularly in the South East.
In the cities like Kentucky, South and North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, etc., the Spanish population has almost doubled. With Hispanic population of 46.3%, New Mexico has the largest percentage of Spanish speakers in US. It is followed by Texas and California with 37.6%.
The regions in which the Hispanic population remained steady were Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Louisiana.
On the whole, the total population growth in the US since 2000 was 27.3 percent and Hispanics contributed for more than half of that percentage.