The U.S. Census Bureau released 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) estimates for the first time, making available social, economic, housing and demographic statistics for every community in the nation.
Up until now, small geographic areas had to rely on outdated 2000 Census figures for detailed information about the characteristics of their communities. Consisting of about 11.1 billion individual estimates and covering more than 670,000 distinct geographies, the 5-year ACS estimates give even the smallest communities more timely information on topics ranging from commute times to languages spoken at home.
The county with the highest percentage of the population that spoke Spanish at home was Starr, Texas, at 95.9 percent. Starr was one of 28 counties, and one of 22 counties in Texas, where more than half the population spoke Spanish at home.
More than 200 counties had less than 1 percent of the population that spoke Spanish at home, including 25 counties in West Virginia and 22 in Kentucky. In Maine, there were no counties where the percent of Spanish speakers exceeded 2 percent.
