Most Hispanic Americans speak Spanish. Seventy-five percent assured that they can maintain a conversation in Spanish fairly well or very well. Additionally, a large majority of Latinos believe that the language will be important for future generations.
A majority of Latinos (65%) say it is at least very important that future generations of Latinos in the U.S. speak Spanish, including a third who say it is extremely important. Only 5% say it’s not at all important.
The study published by Pew Research highlighted that Hispanic Americans who believe that Spanish will be important for future generations also consider that their Hispanic identity is extremely or very important to the way they define themselves. However, the majority of Latino adults (78%) say it is not necessary to speak Spanish to be considered Hispanic.
"Just 7% of third- or higher-generation Latinos (the Latino U.S.-born children of U.S.-born parents) say it is necessary for someone to speak Spanish to be Latino," the study explained.
Speaking Spanish is "very important"
In the case of Hispanics with roots in Central America, 79% said that it is extremely or very important for future generations of Hispanic Americans to speak Spanish. This is significantly higher than what was expressed among Mexicans (64%) and Puerto Ricans (59%).
Similar shares of Cubans (63%) and South Americans (65%) say it is extremely or very important.
The survey highlighted that Spanish is the most commonly spoken language other than English in the United States. Almost 40 million Hispanic people speak the language at home. However, only 34% of third-generation or higher Latinos say they can hold a conversation in Spanish at least fairly well, and only 14% said they can hold a conversation very well.
In that sense, the majority of American Latinos (63%) say they use "Spanglish," including 40% who say they do it frequently. "Second-generation Hispanics are more likely than third- or higher-generation Hispanics to say they use Spanglish at least sometimes," Pew Research highlighted.
Finally, the study indicated that for many Latinos, not speaking Spanish well can result in others shaming or making jokes about them. Of these people, 54% responded that another Hispanic person had made them feel bad about not speaking the language. The survey detailed that "57% of 18- to 49-year-olds report being shamed by other Latinos for not speaking Spanish well. Meanwhile, 44% of those 50 and older say they have had this experience."
For the analysis, the Pew Research Center surveyed a nationally representative sample of 3,029 Latino adults in both English and Spanish.
