Why you need to learn to speak Spanish

From 2000 to 2010, America’s Hispanic population jumped by 43%, while our total population increased by just 9.7%. Or, to put it another way, from 2000 to 2010, America grew by 27.3 million people. Fifteen million of those faces​—​more than half of those new Americans​—​were Hispanic.

If you extrapolate those trends, the numbers get even more eye-popping. In 2008, the Pew Research Center projected that, at current rates, by 2050 there would be 128 million Hispanic Americans, making the group 29% of the American population. The census projection is a little higher; they guess the total will be 132.8 million, 30% of a projected total population of 439 million.

Where do these numbers come from? It’s not rocket science. Demographers depend mainly on two variables: net migration to the United States by people from Spanish-speaking countries and the fertility rate of Hispanic Americans.

In 2000 alone, 770,000 people came from Mexico.

As of the 2010 census, there were 308.7 million people in America, 50.5 million of whom (16%) were classified as being of “Hispanic origin.” Of that 50 million, about half are foreign-born legal immigrants. Another 11 million or so are illegal immigrants. A few other facts, just to give you some texture: 63%  of American Hispanics trace their origins to Mexico, 9.2% to Puerto Rico, and 3.5% to Cuba. And more than half of the 50 million live in just three states, California, Texas, and Florida.

In the most recent years there’s been a net flow of zero immigrants from Mexico.   Economists who have noted this sudden shift are quick to explain it as a byproduct of the recession and the bursting housing bubble, which dried up jobs​—​particularly in the construction industry​—​causing prospective immigrants to stay put and pushing many illegal immigrants already in the country to head home. The implication of this argument is that as soon as our economy goes back to “normal,” the patterns of migration will, too.

Projections suggest that America add another 38 million Hispanics by 2050 just through immigration alone.

Hispanics have the highest fertility rate of America’s racial groups, around 2.7.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/nation-singles_664275.html

Jonathan V. Last is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard. His book What to Expect When No One’s Expecting: America’s Coming Demographic Disaster (Encounter) is forthcoming in February.