美国约有4000万西班牙语使用者，使其成为世界第五大西班牙语国家，规模仅略低于西班牙。Babbel称其美国用户中学习西班牙语的占比在2012年至2025年间从26%跃升至60%，并伴随西班牙语播客、奥斯卡提名艺术家与图书馆借阅等指标走强。

尽管外界担忧西班牙语将“不可阻挡”，西班牙语使用者数量很可能在美国趋于平台并最终回落，原因包括移民流入在特朗普时期趋于“涓流”以及更广泛的同化压力。Pew数据显示，第二代拉丁裔移民中有69%会说西班牙语，而第三代降至34%，整体来看仅57%的美国本土出生拉丁裔会说西班牙语。

语言保留的社会压力与身份认同出现分化：不说西班牙语的拉丁裔中多数承认曾因不会说而被其他拉丁裔羞辱，但87%的美国本土出生拉丁裔认为被视为拉丁裔并不需要会说西班牙语。政治与政策态度也指向英语的稳固地位：特朗普在2024年赢得了接近一半的拉丁裔选票，且36%的拉丁裔支持将英语定为官方语言，这些趋势更像是西班牙语接近峰值而非持续上升。

America has about 40m Spanish speakers, making it the world’s fifth-biggest Hispanophone country, only not far short of Spain. Babbel says the share of its American users studying Spanish jumped from 26% to 60% between 2012 and 2025, alongside rising indicators like Spanish podcasts, Oscar-nominated Spanish-speaking artists, and increased library checkouts.

Despite fears that Spanish is “unstoppable,” the number of Spanish-speakers in America is likely to plateau and eventually reverse, driven by immigration flows becoming a “trickle” under Trump and by broader assimilation pressures. Pew reports that 69% of second-generation Latino immigrants speak Spanish versus 34% of the third generation, and overall only 57% of American-born Latinos speak Spanish.

Social pressure and identity are diverging: a majority of non-Spanish-speaking Latinos say they have been shamed by other Latinos for not speaking it, yet 87% of American-born Latinos say speaking Spanish is not necessary to be considered Latino. Politics and policy attitudes also point to English’s durability, with Trump winning nearly half the Latino vote in 2024 and 36% of Latinos backing English as the official language, suggesting Spanish may be nearer its peak than a sustained rise.

Source: America may be reaching peak Spanish

Subtitle: Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show may mark a ceiling for the language he performs i

Dateline: 2月 12, 2026 05:49 上午