Media planners who work on multicultural accounts should check out a new study from American Demographics magazine, which shows that the percentage of Americans who speak a language other than English
at home rose significantly over the last decade. Americans age 5 and older who speak a language other than English at home grew 47% in the past decade, according to the study, which appears in AD’s
July/August issue. This group now accounts for slightly less than 1 in 5 Americans. More than half speak Spanish, 20% speak an Indo-European language and almost 15% speak an Asian language. Laredo, TX
has the highest percentage of its population speaking non-English at home with 92%. Along with Miami, which has 51%, Laredo also is one of the main metro areas that has a population wherein English
only speakers at home are in the minority. Los Angeles and New York, the two largest metros that house the most foreign language speakers, increased their foreign-language speaking populations by 3.5
million between 1990 and 2000, accounting for 24% of the country's total gain.
