ancestry, who are mostly classified as "Filipino". The exact number of all Filipinos with some Chinese ancestry is unknown. Various estimates have been given from the start of the Spanish Colonial Period up to the present ranging from as low as 1% to as large as 18–27%. The National Statistics Office does not conduct surveys of ethnicity. According to a research report by historian Austin Craig who was commissioned by the United States in 1915 to ascertain the total number of the various races of the Philippines, the pure Chinese, referred to as Sangley, number around 20,000 (as of 1918), and that around one-third of the population of Luzon have partial Chinese ancestry. This comes with a footnote about the widespread concealing and de-emphasising of the exact number of Chinese in the Philippines. Another source dating from the Spanish Colonial Period shows the growth of the Chinese and the Chinese mestizo population to nearly 10% of the Philippine population by 1894. Language The vast majority (74.5%) of Chinese Filipinos speak Filipino as their native language. Most Chinese Filipinos (77%) still retain the ability to understand and speak Hokkien as a second or third language. The use of Hokkien as a first language is seemingly confined to the older generation and to Chinese Filipino families living in traditional Chinese Filipino centers, such as Caloocan, Davao Chinatown, and the Binondo district of Manila. In part due to the increased adoption of Philippine nationality during the Marcos era, most Chinese Filipinos born from the 1970s to the mid-1990s tend to use English, Filipino (Tagalog) and perhaps other Philippine regional languages, which they frequently code-switch between as Taglish or mix together with Hokkien as Hokaglish. Among the younger generation (born from the mid-1990s onward), the preferred language is often English besides also, of course, knowing Filipino (Tagalog) and, in most regions of the Philippines, other regional languages. Recent arrivals from Mainland China or Taiwan, despite coming mostly from traditionally Hokkien-speaking areas, typically now use Mandarin among themselves. Unlike other overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, which feature an assortment of dialect groups, Chinese Filipinos descend overwhelmingly from Hokkien-speaking regions in Southern Fujian. Hence, Hokkien remains the main heritage language among Chinese Filipinos. Mandarin, however, is perceived as the most prestigious Chinese language, so it is taught in Chinese Filipino schools and used in all official and formal functions within the Chinese Filipino community despite