Future
Bright for Increasingly Bilingual Hispanics
---------------------------------------------------
By
Marcelo Wheelock, MIAMI, November 4, 1999.
Hispanics
in the United States will enjoy more economic opportunities due to their
increased bilingualism and the fact they are assimilating more easily into the
mainstream culture than other minorities. One
of the surprises in the report this year is that the Hispanic market is much more bilingual than in previous years," Rick Tobin,
president of Strategy Research
Corporation (SRC), told EFE. In its
study titled "2000 U.S. Hispanic Market Study," SRC found that some 64
percent of Hispanics do not have a strong preference for one or the other
language and are equally proficient in English or Spanish.
The
study found that 32 percent of Hispanics have no preference as far as the
language used for advertisements. However,
14 percent prefer bilingual advertisements and 30 percent want them in Spanish.
"The
most important facet of the study is that Hispanics now understand
English
better. Therefore, they will have a better future in this
country," Tobin said. Hispanic
purchasing power is expected to grow from 273 billion dollars to about 325
billion, which translates from a current median family income of 32,600 dollars
to 34,900 dollars. Due to this,
more and more Hispanics are turning to technology.
The study found that 30 percent of homes have computers, 19 percent have
access to the Internet and 35 percent own and use a cellular telephone.
The study, whose results were published Thursday, interviewed 1,600
Hispanics living in the ten main Hispanic markets.
By
the end of this century, the Hispanic population will have reached 34 million
inhabitants to comprise an estimated 12 percent of the total United States
population (276 million). Demographic
data is based on information from the Census Bureau.
This means that one of every eight people in the country will be Hispanic
by 2000 and by 2015 the total population in the United States is expected to
double to 62.7 million. The
forecast in the study indicated that persons of Mexican descent will comprise
63.3 percent of the Hispanic population. Those
of Central and South American descent will make up 14.8 percent, Puerto Rican
descent will make up 10.5 percent, Cuban descent will make up 4.5 percent and
descendants from other Latin countries will account for 6.9 percent.
Sixty
percent of all Hispanics will live in ten cities: Los Angeles will have 6.9
million; New York City will have 3.8 million; Miami will have 1.5 million; San
Francisco and Chicago will each have 1.4 million, and Houston will have 1.3
million. The Hispanic population in San Antonio will reach 1.2
million, while Dallas and McAllen, Texas will each have 900,000.
San Diego will have 800,000 Hispanics.
The study also found that in 2000, seven U.S. states will have a Hispanic
population of over one million inhabitants.
In those states, Hispanics will comprise 34 percent of the total
population of California; 19.2 percent of the population in Texas; 8.6 percent
in New York; in Florida 7.3 percent; in Illinois 4 percent; in Arizona 3.5
percent; and in