Estimating the Number of LEP (Limited English Proficient) Persons in the United States

The term LEP is widely used in healthcare, legal and educational settings. As defined by the Department of Justice LEP Guidance, LEP persons are “"those individuals who have a limited ability to read, write, speak or understand English". The significance of the term is, without a doubt, related to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act which prohibits recipients from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin, and contemplates a close nexus between one's national origin and one's language.

At Translation Source, our clients often ask us about the size and character of the LEP market. Given the limited public information that addresses this, we undertook an internal study of the matter. This blog post is an introduction to our findings. We are currently developing a full white paper discussing the LEP market that we expect to publish in September 2009.

There are two major challenges when estimating market size of the LEP population: First, the DOJ definition allows for subjectivity: Should we include persons who are deaf or hard of hearing? How should we define "limited ability"? Second, the latest reliable information on the matter comes from the 2000 census, which is obviously outdated. To overcome these obstacles, we made several assumptions in our study including the following:

• We did not include persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.
  


• We defined the LEP population as all of those who do not speak English very well and those who do not speak English at all, as defined by the 2000 Census.
  


• To update the data of the 2000 Census, we assumed that the number of LEP Spanish speakers has grown at the same rate as the aggregate growth of the Hispanic population and that the LEP non-Spanish speakers has grown at the same rate as the aggregate growth of the Asian American population. The growth numbers were taken from U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Our analysis shows that there are an estimated 25 million LEP persons in the United States as of July 1, 2008. There are meaningful data points taken away from this number:

The current LEP population is comparable to that of the entire population of the state of Texas or 20% larger than the populations of Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming combined.

California, Texas, New York, New Mexico, Illinois and Florida average a 15% LEP population with 33% of the population speaking a language other than English in the home.

• California: 6.7 million or 20% are LEP, 14.2 million or 42.3% speak a language other than English in the home.
  


• Texas: 3.1 million or 14.6% are LEP, 7.1 million or 33.5% speak a language other than English in the home.
  


• New York: 2.3 million or 13% are LEP, 5.1 million or 28.6% speak a language other than English in the home.
  


• New Mexico: 188 thousand or 10% are LEP, 648 thousand or 36% speak a language other than English in the home.
  


• Illinois: 1.1 million or 9.8% are LEP, 2.5 million or 21.6% speak a language other than English in the home.
  


• Florida: 1.9 million or 11.7% are LEP, 4.3 million or 25.6% speak a language other than English in the home.
  

The LEP population may be growing three times as quickly as the general U.S.
population

We welcome your comments and would love to hear your opinion via this blog or through or Facebook page. Also, we would like to hear about how you see the increasing importance of the LEP market affecting your job and how your company or institution is adapting to meet the challenges generated by this trend.

Brazil Eyes US Investment in Renewable Energy Through Contract Stability

The Greater Houston Partnership hosted a breakfast roundtable discussion with Brazil's Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy Marcio Zimmerman at the Federal Reserve Bank in Houston, Texas on July 10th, 2009.The Deputy Minister addressed two key points during the breakfast.The first was the desire for increased investment by the US in Brazil. The second being Brazil's energy plans through the year 2030.

Deputy Minister Marcio Zimmerman stated that Brazil understood the need for contractual stability in the regulatory and legal environment of Brazil in order to achieve foreign investment. He repeatedly emphasized the opportunities for US companies to be successful in Brazil and candidly discussed the need for Brazil to create an environment of stability. Zimmerman stated that 46% of Brazil's energy is renewable (most of which is Hydroelectric) and that the US has the highest investment in renewable energy in the world. Brazil is committed to stabilizing the contractual environment in order to make investment possible. He also stated that it was important to always realize that when dealing with natural resources it was important to act in a manner that was in the best interests of the people of Brazil.

Brazil's Energy plans through 2030 rely on increased investment in renewable resources and utilizing new technologies to create greater efficiencies and less environmental impact. While hydroelectric power would continue to be a major area of investment for Brazil, biofuels, solar power and wind energy would also be heavily invested in. The Deputy Minster also noted that he was quite surprised at the advanced stage of US biofuel development and felt that this could be another area for US and Brazil cooperation as biofuels only represent 4-5% of Brazilian diesel production. The Deputy Minister ended by discussing the simlarities that exist between the US and Brazil stating that both countries benefit from vibrant multicultural backgrounds and that there are natural synergies for cooperation within the energy industry.