Visualizing Spanish Speaking Limited English Proficiency and Hispanic Populations in Fort Collins, Colorado

Brent D. Mast
Tricia Ruiz
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the official positions or policies of the Office of Policy Development and Research, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or the U.S. Government.

Between 2010 and 2019, the U.S. population grew by 18.9 percent, and the increase in the number of Hispanics or Latinos contributed to 52 percent of this increase (Krogstad, 2020). In 2020, there were 59,361,020 Hispanics or Latinos in the United States, comprising approximately 18 percent of the total population.

Since 2000, English proficiency has increased among the Hispanic and Latino population (Funk and Lopez, 2022). The Pew Research Center reported that the percentage of Hispanics speaking Spanish declined from 78 percent in 2000 to 73 percent in 2013 (Krogstad, Stepler, and Lopez, 2015). The Pew report also indicated that there has been an increase in U.S.-born Latinos who speak English proficiently, from 72 percent in 1980 to 89 percent in 2013, and that part of this trend was due to more U.S.-born Hispanics living in households where only English is spoken.