U.S. Could Have Most Spanish Speakers by 2050

The wave of the Spanish language and the arrival of Latinos has been unstoppable in all corners of the first world power. This trend is to the point that now, there are 45 million speakers included in the United States census, a number that exceeds the amount in Spain. In 40 years, that figure could triple.

According to a study carried out by the Cervantes Institute called “Encyclopedia of Spanish in the United States,” it’s not just that the United States already has the second greatest concentration of Spanish speakers in the world after Mexico, which has 106 million, but that in 2050 the US could acquire the number one spot if its figures reach the projected 132 million people with the same native language as Cervantes.

Nothing can stop this phenomenon that exceeds every expectation.

“For whites, the protective laws that try to impose ‘English only’ in some states won’t do any good,” said the coordinator of the study. “This is unstoppable. Nothing can be done against it. What’s more, when the prevailing law states that each man gets a vote, the Hispanic vote has a deciding power.”

Throughout the 1300 pages and 80 in-depth articles, the study tackles the health of the Spanish language from linguistic, sociological, and cultural perspectives in the fields of communications, the economy, and demography.

The reason for this? The push of all of the Latin culture with the language as a basic reference point can change the balance of the country dramatically. “That image of the United States as a big mixture of cultures that will finally integrate into a melting pot with a common language and culture becomes destroyed in the case of the Hispanics,” the study shows.

“They have integrated and risen in every field,” the coordinator said.

“Today the number of Cubans is only a few tenths away from the number of white Anglo-Saxons that have doctorates.”

More and more businesses require bilingual employees, who can come to earn $20,000 more each year if they master both languages, or the methods of communication in Spanish. Big newspapers written in English insert advertisements in Spanish. Spanish-language radio stations have doubled in a decade. Today there are over 550 in the country. TV channels continue on the same path. Currently there are 55, with a 70 percent increase in the last 10 years.

The United States could become a country with more Spanish speakers than English speakers in the 21st century. “The writer Junot Diaz said, the United States is the ground zero in the fight between English and Spanish,” assures the mission of the work.

Spanish was the preferred language of 822,985 United States college students in 2006, with a clear lead compared to French (206,426) and German (94,264).