A look at Canada’s biggest trading partner

America, the world’s biggest English-speaking market, projects a monolingual image to the world. But did you know that non-English-speaking households have nearly tripled in number in the last three decades? In 2020, some 22% of Americans used a language other than English at home, or about 71 million people—almost twice the population of Canada!

Huge spending power

Ethnic communities have been growing by leaps and bounds. The Hispanic population grew every decade by more than 50% between 1970 and 2000, and has continued to rise by more than 25% in the two decades since. In 2022, it was estimated at over 63 million people.

In California, the Hispanic community actually surpassed the non-Hispanic White population in 2014 and continues to grow. The Latino population in Texas followed suit in 2021 and now accounts for more than 40% of the entire state. Eleven other states have over half a million Spanish speakers.

The Hispanic market is truly a driving force of the U.S. economy. Between 2010 and 2020, U.S. consumer spending power rose by 55%, but the buying power of the Hispanic community rocketed up by 87%. It was estimated at $1.9 trillion in 2020, more than the GDP of Italy and only slightly less than France’s.

What does this mean for you?

Millions of consumers in the U.S. will be more receptive to your message if you speak to them in a language other than English. Spanish is obviously the hands-down choice, but there are large enough numbers of other groups to make them worth a careful look. In 2019, nearly 3.5 million households spoke Chinese, nearly 1.8 million spoke Tagalog, and 1.5 million used Vietnamese.

People pay more attention to you and think more highly of you if you address them in their native language. They are also more likely to recommend you to others in their language group—you could wind up gaining an entire family of customers! As the U.S. consumer market grows more diverse, it’s important to tailor your advertising, products, and media to each market segment.

Help is available

That’s where the services of a professional translation company like TRSB come into play. We can sit down with you and develop a plan to take strategic advantage of linguistic diversity, not just in Canada, but right across North America. Then we’ll put our multilingual division and its validated language resources to work to make sure you draw maximum benefit from your new segmented approach. No obligation, just great opportunities to tap into new business. Let’s be in touch