When asked about their language use and English proficiency in 2014, some 88% of Latinos ages 5 to 17 said they either speak only English at home or speak English “very well,” up from 73% who said the same in 2000.
And among Latinos ages 18 to 33, the share who speak only English at home or say they speak English “very well” increased from 59% to 76% during this time.
Increasing English use by young Hispanics has been driven in large part by demographics. More Hispanics in the U.S. today were born in the country than arrived as immigrants (the number of newly arrived immigrants from Latin America has been in decline for a decade). For example, 65% of Latinos in 2014 were U.S. born, compared with 60% in 2000. One consequence of this trend is that a greater share of young Hispanics ages 5 to 17 are growing up in households where only English is spoken – 37% in 2014 compared with 30% in 2000.
By comparison, English proficiency among older Latinos has changed little since 2000. For instance, among Latinos ages 34 to 49, 55% spoke English very well or only spoke English at home in 2014 – nearly unchanged from 2000, when the share was 53%. Among Latinos ages 69 and older, just 43% said they spoke English proficiently in 2014, compared with 42% in 2000.
Even as more Latinos speak English proficiently than in the past, many also speak Spanish. The Pew Research Center analysis shows that 36.7 million Latinos speak Spanish at home, making Spanish the most spoken non-English language in the U.S. Looked at another way, three-in-four (73%) Latinos say they speak Spanish at home.
Despite the rise of English among U.S. Latinos, nearly all say they value the ability to speak Spanish, with 95% saying it is important to them that future generations of U.S. Latinos speak the language. Still, as English use rises, most Latinos say Spanish doesn't define their identity: 71% say speaking Spanish is not necessary to be considered Latino.
You can see a statistical portrait of the nation's Hispanic population here that documents key demographic and economic trends from 1980 to 2014.
Source: Published originally on PewResearchCenter, Rise in English proficiency among U.S. Hispanics is driven by the young by Jens Manuel Krogstad, April 20, 2016.
Younger Hispanics have very different media preferences than their grandparents and even their parents. They have their own unique language preference. And they're much more educated.
This has over time shaped a unique demographic group that advertisers should be courting quite differently than the older one.
A new report from Nielsen takes an in-depth look at the Hispanic demographic, in which these growing differences emerge.
It's a fascinating portrait of a group that will account for “virtually all (93 percent) of the growth of the nation's working-age population between now and 2050.”
Right now there are nearly 57 million U.S. Hispanics. By 2020 that number will balloon to 119 million, or just 60 million shy of the number of non-Hispanic whites, who are on the decline.
Here's a look at three areas where the differences between younger and older Hispanics are most stark.
Language
Language is an age-old struggle for those targeting Hispanics. For years previous to 2000, much of the U.S. Hispanic population were immigrants, and they spoke Spanish, the language of their native country, usually Mexico.
But the vast majority of American Hispanics are now born in this country, and that's led to a language divide.
Nielsen says that among adults 55 and over, 35 percent are Spanish-dominant, compared to a mere 4 percent of those under 18, and 14 percent of Millennials.
It's not just Spanish where the differences come, though. Less than half of 55-and-overs are bilingual, while 58 percent of those under 34 speak both languages.
The takeaway: This gap will continue to grow with greater assimilation and as fewer kids grow up in homes with foreign-born Hispanics.
Media
This is the area where young and old most differ. Hispanic Millennials are voracious consumers of new media. For example, 91 percent use social media compared to 64 percent of those over 35.
Interestingly, young Hispanics' media device ownership closely mimics non-Hispanics rather than Hispanics over 35. So, for instance, 88 percent of Hispanic Millennials have smartphones compared to 86 percent of non-Hispanics and 68 percent of Hispanics over 35.
And there are vast difference between consumption of traditional media such as cable and broadcast, as detailed in the chart below.
The takeaway: When targeting this demographic, it's important to do it by age group to determine which media to use.
Education
Young Hispanics are more educated than their older counterparts, and becoming more so every year.
Sixty-seven percent of Hispanic high school graduates enrolled in college from 2012 to 2014.
“The number of 18-to-24-year-old Hispanics enrolled in a two- or four-year college more than tripled between 1993 and 2013: 2.2 million Hispanics enrolled in 2013 versus 728,000 in 1993. That trend has made Hispanics the largest diversity group on U.S. college campuses,” Nielsen notes.
There are more Hispanics to seek out these opportunities, for sure, but the growth is still stunning.
The takeaway: This will result in a more affluent Hispanic demographic going forward. Already, the number of Hispanic households making $100,000 annually has more than doubled from 2000 to 2014.
This article is part of an ongoing Media Life series entitled “Catching the next big wave: Hispanic media.” You can read previous stories by clicking here
Source: Published originally on medialifemagazine.com as Growing gap between younger and older Hispanics, by the editors of Media Life, September 1, 2016
“Latinos live longer than Caucasians, despite experiencing higher rates of diabetes and other diseases. Scientists refer to this as the ‘Hispanic paradox,'” said lead author Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “Our study helps explain this by demonstrating that Latinos age more slowly at the molecular level.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos in the United States live an average of three years longer than Caucasians, with a life expectancy of 82 versus 79. At any age, healthy Latino adults face a 30 percent lower risk of death than other racial groups, according to a 2013 study in the American Journal of Public Health.
The UCLA team used several biomarkers, including an “epigenetic clock” developed by Horvath in 2013, to track an epigenetic shift in the genome that's linked to aging. Epigenetics is the study of changes to the DNA molecule that influence which genes are active but don't alter the DNA sequence.
Horvath and his colleagues analyzed 18 sets of data on DNA samples from nearly 6,000 people. The participants represented seven ethnicities: two African groups, African-Americans, Caucasians, East Asians, Latinos and an indigenous people called the Tsimane, who are genetically related to Latinos. The Tsimane live in Bolivia.
When the scientists examined the DNA from blood — which reveals the health of a person's immune system — they were struck by differences linked to ethnicity. In particular, the scientists noticed that, after accounting for differences in cell composition, the blood of Latinos and the Tsimane aged more slowly than other groups.
According to Horvath, the UCLA research points to an epigenetic explanation for Latinos' longer life spans. For example, the biological clock measured Latino women's age as 2.4 years younger than non-Latino women of the same age after menopause.
“We suspect that Latinos' slower aging rate helps neutralize their higher health risks, particularly those related to obesity and inflammation,” said Horvath, who is also a professor of biostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “Our findings strongly suggest that genetic or environmental factors linked to ethnicity may influence how quickly a person ages and how long they live.”
The Tsimane aged even more slowly than Latinos. The biological clock calculated the age of their blood as two years younger than Latinos and four years younger than Caucasians. This reflects the group's minimal signs of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity or clogged arteries, the researchers said.
“Despite frequent infections, the Tsimane people show very little evidence of the chronic diseases that commonly afflict modern society,” said coauthor Michael Gurven, a professor of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara. “Our findings provide an interesting molecular explanation for their robust health.”
In another finding, the researchers learned that men's blood and brain tissue ages faster than women's from the same ethnic groups. The discovery could explain why women have a higher life expectancy than men.
Horvath and his colleagues next plan to study the aging rate of other human tissues and to identify the molecular mechanism that protects Latinos from aging.
The research was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Aging.
Source: Published originally on newsroom.ucla.edu as Latinos age slower than other ethnicities, UCLA study shows by Elaine Schmidt, August 16, 2016
- Author: AARP by Jean Accius
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research recently released a report on Hispanics' attitudes and experiences with LTSS in America. This report is part of a series of studies exploring attitudes and personal experiences with LTSS in the United States. The 2015 study included 1,735 interviews with a nationally representative sample of adults age 40 and older, including oversamples of 419 Hispanics.
Here are five key takeaways from the report:
- The majority of Hispanics age 40-plus in the survey anticipate needing help with LTSS — eating, dressing, bathing, cooking, getting around, etc. In fact, 59 percent of Hispanics age 40-plus expect to need LTSS in the future, which is similar to other racial and ethnic groups. Hispanics with prior experience in providing, receiving and financing LTSS were more likely to report needing LTSS in the future relative to those without this experience. Hispanics who rated their health as poor or fair were more likely to expect needing LTSS.
- While a majority of Hispanics age 40-plus expect that they will need care in the future, similar to other racial and ethnic groups, few took the necessary actions to plan for their future LTSS needs. Nearly 6 in 10 Hispanics have done little to no planning, compared with 12 percent that have done a great deal or quite a bit of planning for their future LTSS needs. Nearly half (47 percent) of Hispanics compared with 32 percent of non-Hispanics said they were concerned about not planning enough for their future LTSS needs.
- Educational attainment and income are associated with increased planning for LTSS. Hispanics age 40-plus with more than a high school education are more likely than those with a high school degree to have discussed their LTSS preferences with their families, looked into private long-term care insurance or sought out information on LTSS and other aging issues. Those with household incomes of at least $50,000 are more likely to report having done some planning for their LTSS needs relative to those with less than $50,000.
- Confidence in the ability to pay for the cost of LTSS is of great concern. The typical cost of LTSS per year in a nursing home is about $91,250, and $43,200 for assisted living. The survey found that 40 percent of Hispanics compared with 29 percent of non-Hispanics lacked confidence that they would have the financial resources to pay for their future LTSS needs.
- Hispanics age 40-plus are supportive of several policies designed to reduce the financial burden of LTSS:
- Seventy-one percent support tax breaks to encourage savings and 67 percent support tax breaks for purchasing private long-term care insurance.
- Sixty-seven percent of Hispanics are supportive of a government-administered long-term care insurance program.
Hispanics are a growing segment of our population, but this group is not alone in trying to figure out how best to pay for LTSS. These findings point to a broader need to raise awareness about the risk of needing LTSS and why we need a range of innovative and bold solutions to meet people's needs and preferences as they age.
Source: AARP, Hispanics' expectations and planning for long-term services & supports: 5 key points you should know, byJean Accius, April 19, 2016.
While Millennials are frequently identified as being masters of influence, Latinos over the age of 50 are quite persuasive. Latinos over the age of 50 represent 10 percent of their age cohort, and that's expected to grow to 24 percent by 2060. The Nielsen report published Oct. 13 explores the consumption habits of older Latinos who've redefined retirement by living and working longer.
Latinos over the age of 50 are largely responsible for overall Latino population growth, power and influence. With a life expectancy of 83.5 years (compared to 78.7 for non-Latino whites), Latinos live longer and they often sway social trends. Additionally, the annual income within these households has improved at a rate that's faster than their younger counterparts. Between 2005 and 2013, Hispanic households headed by someone between age 50 and 69 making $100,000+ annually increased from 14 percent to 20 percent. Due to budding wealth, Latinos over the age of 50 have prolonged shopping decisions and purchasing influence within multigenerational households.
"America is growing more and more diverse with younger generations commanding the attention, but in order to understand the Hispanic Millennial cultural influence, it's vital for marketers to understand the generation that precedes them," Mónica Gil, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Multicultural Growth and Strategy, Nielsen, said in a press release. "This report provides insights into one of the most influential multicultural consumer segments in the U.S. mainstream."
According to the report authors, Latinos aren't aging out, instead they are aging up "with an influence that extends to multiple generations." Latino elders laid the groundwork for the booming economic power that Latinos are now recognized for. However, older Latinos maintain control in areas outside of wealth and economics; they also have political clout and will be the decisive swing vote in state and local elections. These voters are interested in the education, employment, the economy, and healthcare. Also, 73 percent consider immigration to be very or extremely important. California, Texas, Florida and New York are the states have the highest concentration of older Latinos, and those states have 55, 38, 29 and 29 electoral votes respectively.
Multigenerational homes benefit older Latinos for numerous reasons, including the fact that communal living affords opportunities for children care, transportation, shopping and cooking. The unique buying behavior within communal arrangements translates to greater disposable income. Latinos between ages 50 and 60, who tend to live in multigenerational homes, saw a sharp increase in annual pay from 2000 to 2013, and they tend to lead shopping habits and purchasing across a wide spectrum of services and products. Also, older Latinos tend to shop more frequently, over-indexing in health and beauty aids, general merchandise, non-food grocery, packaged meat, dry grocery, fresh produce and alcoholic beverages.
Boomers are also brand loyal consumers who are more likely to cook at home than younger Hispanic adults. Also, they tend to watch twice the amount of traditional television, they're interested in watching live TV on their phones, and they've chosen app is Facebook, much like younger Latinos. Additionally, the report showed Latinos experience lower mortality rates in 7 out of the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S. After immigrating to the U.S., Hispanics tend to have lower smoking rates, better diets and better general health in the first few years.
Source: Published originally on LatinPost.com as Older Latino Population Thriving Financially, Enjoying Good Health: Report, by Nicole Akoukou Thompson,October 13, 2015.