Posts Tagged: Spanish-speakers
Is The U.S. Hispanic Market A Growth Market?
While the market definition has generally expanded during the last 10-15 years to include native-born second- and third-generation Hispanics, the “core” Hispanic market has been characterized by the unacculturated and partially acculturated Latin American immigrants who have represented separate and distinct market opportunities for companies to reach and sell to. The defining characteristic of this market has been the growth and use of Spanish language media and advertising, predominantly consumed by this “core” Spanish-speaking immigrant consumer.
Over the last 30 years, the Hispanic market has exploded, growing from 14.8 million in 1980 to 55 million in 2014, according to Pew Research, but 55% of that growth was driven by immigration in the 1980s and '90s that exceeded U.S. births. However, around 2004, immigration into the U.S. by Hispanics started a steady decline. In 2016, only 28% of the roughly 1 million annual immigrants into the U.S. were Hispanic. Starting in 2010, Asian immigration started to outpace Hispanic immigration.
Looking ahead, the percentage of Hispanic immigration is forecast to decrease steadily to 26% and potentially drop down below 25% by 2020, Pew found. This could trend even farther downward considering the current political environment in the United States.
So, while new Hispanic immigration into the U.S. is still forecast to top 250,000 per year, another trend, reverse immigration, primarily among Mexicans returning from the U.S., is forecast to continue at levels of approximately 200,000 per year. The result is that net Hispanic immigration into the U.S. will be anemic at best, with growth rates of less than 0.4% per year or less than 80,000 per year. This is not a growth market.
While geopolitical and economic factors may change this trend, the next five years look bleak for “core” Hispanic market population growth in sharp contrast to the go-go '80s and '90s when the market grew rapidly.
Overall, the U.S. Hispanic population is forecast to grow, but that growth will come primarily from U.S. births. Which leads to a critical question: Is this U.S.-born Hispanic market a separate and distinct market from the foreign-born immigrant Hispanic market? This question goes to the heart of the future of Hispanic marketing. I would argue that this U.S.-born, acculturated Hispanic is separate and distinct and the strategies and tactics that worked for marketing to immigrant Hispanics the last 30 years will not work for native Hispanics.
The numbers paint a very clear picture: there are two Hispanic markets — one that is stagnant and aging and one that is growing and getting younger. As I've argued numerous times over the years, the old way of Hispanic marketing is becoming irrelevant. A new way forward is required to address this new vibrant market. A new Hispanic market requires a new approach to Hispanic marketing.
Source: Published originally on mediapost.com as Is The U.S. Hispanic Market A Growth Market? by Jose Villa, May 25, 2017.
Immigrants arriving in the US
Language may impact diabetes care for Latinos with limited English
When researchers studied 31,000 patients with diabetes who received insurance and healthcare through Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, they found that about 60 percent of Spanish-speaking Latino patients skipped filling prescriptions at least 20 percent of the time in the two years after they were told they needed the drugs to help control the disease.
That rate was only about 52 percent among English-speaking Latino patients and 38 percent among white patients.
"Latino patients with diabetes, even when insured and facing relatively low barriers to healthcare, are much more likely to have poor medication adherence than their white counterparts," said lead study author Dr. Alicia Fernandez, a researcher at San Francisco General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco.
The study didn't find any difference in medication adherence for diabetics with limited English based on whether they saw Spanish-speaking doctors.
This suggests factors beyond just language and communication may come into play, researchers conclude in JAMA Internal Medicine.
"Physicians who care for Latino patients with diabetes should focus on medication adherence and explore individual barriers to adherence," Fernandez added by email. "These may include lack of 'buy-in' to medication treatment, concern regarding side effects, concerns regarding costs, and competing life demands on medication use and self-care."
But while this study didn't find that having Spanish-speaking doctors improved medication adherence, a separate study of Latino diabetics published in the same journal did see some benefit.
The researchers on the second study also looked at data from Kaiser Permanente, in this case to see whether patients with limited English proficiency might have better blood sugar control when they switched from English-speaking to Spanish-speaking primary care physicians.
This study included about 1,600 Latino patients who preferred speaking Spanish to English.
At the start of the study, 54 percent of these patients saw a primary care provider who didn't speak Spanish. During the study, 48 percent of this group of patients switched to a Spanish-speaking doctor.
After this switch to Spanish-speaking doctors, 74 percent of these patients had blood sugar in a healthy range, up from 63 percent when they saw English-speaking doctors. This increase was 10 percent more than the patients who just switched from one English-speaking doctor to another.
"Having a primary care provider that speaks your language appears to be important for several reasons; it improves lines of communication, may reduce the risk of misunderstandings, increases patient satisfaction and now there is evidence that it may also improve management of diabetes," said lead study author Melissa Parker, a researcher at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California.
Both studies have some limitations, including the lack of data on some factors that can influence how much patients take their medicine or follow advice from doctors, such as health literacy or the degree of spoken or written abilities in English and Spanish for physicians and patients.
Still, the results from these studies suggest that it would make sense to prioritize access to Spanish-speaking doctors for Latinos with limited English who are newly diagnosed with diabetes, Dr. Eliseo Perez-Stable, director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, writes in an accompanying editorial.
That's because seeing a doctor who speaks Spanish may be more important for establishing a treatment regimen than maintaining one, Perez-Stable writes.
"Communication between clinicians and patients is essential in most aspects of medicine but it is especially true in management of a chronic disease such as diabetes," Perez-Stable said by email.
Ideally, there would be more Spanish-speaking and bilingual doctors, Perez-Stable added by email. Absent that, patients should make sure there's a professional interpreter available and also bring someone to clinic visits who is bilingual and can help support the treatment plan after patients go home.
Source: Published originally on foxnews.com, Language may impact diabetes care for Latinos with limited English,, January 24, 2017.
Is speaking Spanish necessary to be Hispanic?
On the one hand, Spanish is an important part of Latino culture and identity, with 95% of Latinos saying it is important for future generations to speak Spanish.
At the same time, most Latino adults say it is not necessary to speak Spanish to be considered Latino. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey of Latinos, 71% of Latino adults hold that view while 28% say the opposite.
Among Hispanics, views on speaking Spanish and Hispanic identity differ, though majorities of all key subgroups say speaking Spanish isn't necessary to be considered Hispanic.
While language use differs among Hispanics – some speak only English, some speak only Spanish and some are bilingual – Spanish is still a characteristic that, for the most part, unites much of group. About three-quarters of Latinos, no matter where they are from, speak Spanish at home.
Even so, the share that does so at home is declining at the same time that immigration from Mexico has slowed substantially and U.S. births have become the driver of Hispanic population growth. In fact, the share of Latinos who speak only English at home is rising. Today, 27% of Hispanics ages 5 and older live in a household where only English is spoken, compared with 22% in 2006.
Source: Pew Research Center, Is speaking Spanish necessary to be Hispanic? Most Hispanics say no, by Mark Hugo Lopez, February 19, 2016.
Mapping radio’s reach with Hispanic consumers
This growth trend is also evident when examining Black and Hispanic audiences—the weekly reach of radio among Blacks and Hispanics has been growing steadily over the past five years. Since 2011, the weekly national Black radio audience has grown 5% (from 29.8 million to 31.3 million) while the Hispanic audience has grown 11% (from 36.5 million to 40.4 million). Combined, these groups account for almost a third (29.3%) of the national audience, representing 71.7 million audio consumers.
And because radio reaches more than 90% of both of these audiences, the footprint of where that listening is highest mirrors the larger population trends taking place in the U.S. today. When looking at the markets and states with the highest penetration of listening to urban or Spanish language formats—the formats most popular with Black and Hispanic listeners, respectively—geography and market size play a large role in scoring which parts of the map index above or below the national average for audience share to those formats.
The states with the highest share of Black consumers listening to urban radio formats are centered in the East, specifically the mid-Atlantic and the South. There are only two states west of the Mississippi (Arkansas and Louisiana) that index above the national average.
Conversely, the Hispanic map looks a bit different, where western states and states with large urban areas (New York and Chicago) lead the way for listening to Spanish language radio.
The power of radio is evident not just as a whole, but also within the diverse communities of listeners stretching from coast to coast. In this quarter's report, we focus on the record 71.7 million blacks and Hispanics who combine to account for almost a third (29.3%) of the national average quarter hour (AQH) audience.
These black and Hispanic consumers spend more time with radio each week than any other group, and possess enormous buying power for advertisers looking to reach a qualified audience when they are away from home and in the marketplace ready to purchase.
Music is a key component of Hispanic life and Hispanics are among the most enthusiastic consumers of music across a variety of genres regardless of acculturation level. Having roots in Mexico and various countries across Central America, South America and the Caribbean, Hispanics are diverse, speak multiple languages, and straddle multiple cultures. There is no single narrative that applies to those who identify themselves as Hispanic. Some are recent immigrants who speak only Spanish, some are descendants of families who immigrated generations ago and speak only English, and some speak Spanish and English with equal ease.
One thing that binds Hispanics together is a passion for music.
A Love For Music
The average Hispanic spends $135 per year on music, considerably more than the average consumer, who spends $105 per year. Much of this difference is explained by Hispanics' love of live music and a cultural tradition that values communal celebration.
Source: Published originally on Nielsen.com as Mapping Radio's Reach with Black and Hispanic Consumers, August 4, 2015.
U.S. is the No. 2 Spanish-Speaking Country in the World
Instituto Cervantes, based in Spain, reported there are 41 million native Spanish speakers in the U.S. and 11.6 million who are bilingual for a total of 52.6 million.
That puts the U.S. second to its neighbor to the south, Mexico and ahead of Colombia, where Spanish speakers total 121 million and 46 million respectively, the Guardian reported.
According to the report, Spanish was the native tongue of 470 million people worldwide this year and some 559 million have some usage of the language, either because they are native speakers, have some proficiency or are learning the language.
In May, Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends reported that English use was increasing among Latinos in the U.S. Meanwhile, the share of Hispanics who speak Spanish at home had been declining for the past 13 years. Despite the decline, a record 35.8 million Latinos speak Spanish at home. The record increases while there is a decline because of the growth in the Latino population.
Source: Originally published on CBS News as U.S. is the No. 2 Spanish-Speaking Country in the World, Jun 29 2015