Pew Survey: Most Hispanic adults prefer to consume news in English and through digital media

Nearly three-quarters of Latino adults under age 50 (73%) prefer to get their news on digital devices, including 27% who specifically prefer social media, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

More than half of U.S. Hispanic adults (54%) receive their news primarily in English, far more than the percentage who receive their news primarily in Spanish (21%). About a quarter of Hispanic Americans (23%) say they consume news in both languages ​​about equally.

There is an almost identical pattern in preferred language for news: 51% prefer to receive news in English, 24% prefer Spanish, and 23% say they have no preference.

The Pew Research Center’s survey of adults who identify as Hispanic or Latino finds important differences in news consumption habits between Hispanics born in the United States and those who immigrated from other countries.

While Latinos born in the United States overwhelmingly receive their news in English and prefer it in English, those born outside the United States have varied habits: 41% receive their news primarily in Spanish, 26% receive it primarily in English and 31% both approximately equally. Similarly, 47% of Latino immigrants prefer to receive news in Spanish, while 22% prefer English and 31% express no preference.

Among Latino immigrants, those who have spent more years in the United States are less likely than recent arrivals to receive news in Spanish, and more likely to receive it in English. There is little difference between the percentages of those who receive news in both languages ​​approximately equally.

Click HERE for more information about the languages ​​in which American Latinos consume news.

The study also offers answers to better understand how a group that makes up nearly one in five Americans stays informed, especially as their demographics and use of Spanish continue to change. Immigrants are declining as a percentage of all Hispanics in the United States, and the share of Hispanics who speak Spanish at home has also declined, although the number of Hispanics who speak Spanish at home has increased due to overall growth in the Hispanic population.

Other key findings about Hispanic news consumption include that the majority of Latino adults prefer digital devices for news.

Latinos get their news from a variety of sources, but most say they prefer using digital devices over other platforms. Nearly nine in ten (87%) say they receive news through digital devices at least sometimes, and 65% say they prefer this form of news to television, radio or print. Digital devices have become an increasingly common source of news among Latinos – and Americans in general – in recent decades, a change fueled by the rise of the Internet.

Latinos are more likely than white Americans (55%) and black Americans (50%) to prefer receiving news through digital devices. Latinos are also more likely than white and black adults to receive news from social media, at least in part because Latino adults tend to be younger than other groups, and young adults are more inclined to use social media. to get news.

Nearly three-quarters of Latino adults under age 50 (73%) prefer to get their news on digital devices, including 27% who specifically prefer social media.

The survey also found that attention to the news is declining among U.S. Latinos. About one in five Latino adults (22%) say they follow the news all or most of the time, while an additional 36% follows the news part of the time. The share of Latinos who follow the news all or most of the time has fluctuated in recent years, but has decreased 9 percentage points between 2020 (31%) and 2023 (22%), similar to a pattern seen in the general public of the United States.

In recent years, Hispanic Americans have followed the news less closely than white and black Americans. Once again, the high proportion of young adults within the Hispanic population plays a role, because young people are less likely to follow the news closely. Among Hispanic adults ages 18 to 29, only 10% say they follow the news all or most of the time, far below the share of Hispanics ages 65 and older who do so (44%).