what is the population of spanish speakers in the u.s
Spanish language in the United States The Spanish language in the United States has forty-five million Hispanic and Latino Americans that speak Spanish as their first, second or heritage language,[1] and there are six million Spanish language students in the United States,[2] making it the second most spoken language of the United States. With over 50 million native speakers and second language speakers, the United States now has the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico,[3] although it is not an official language of the country.[4] Spanish is the most studied foreign language in United States schools and is spoken as a native tongue by 41 million people, plus an additional 11 million fluent second-language speakers.[5] About half of all American Spanish speakers also assessed themselves as speaking English "very well" in the 2000 U.S. Census.[6] The United States is among the Spanish-speaking countries that has its own Academy of the Spanish Language.[7]