Most Spoken Languages in the US

Despite Spanish slowly gaining steam over the last decade, English continues to be the most spoken language in the US, with English only speakers making up a whopping 78% of the population. And although we have several means of collecting and visualizing this information — to include the American Community Survey (ACS) and U.S. Census — rarely does the data tell us why languages go up and down over time.

However, there are several data tools that can be used to examine the current state of languages, and some, like the Census Data Explorer tool (as we’ve used below), can be used to effectively analyze “languages spoken at home” for any state and/or territory in the United States.

By understanding the many languages spoken throughout the country, U.S. federal agencies, local governments, non-profits, and other organizations can forecast future trends, identify socioeconomic needs, reevaluate programs and tax policies, prioritize financial assistance, and effectively measure programs that have a direct effect on people with limited English-speaking ability.

Use the data and interactive tool(s) below to explore the many languages spoken throughout the U.S. Compare the findings, see which languages are spoken for each state, and understand why the U.S. Census now uses “Language Groups” instead of a detailed list. Pair the data with other housing, voting, employment, and educational tools to explore the issue further.

Rank	Language	ACS Estimate	Estimate as Percent of Total
1	Speak only English	243,098,950	78.34%
2	Spanish	41,157,140	13.26%
3	Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese)	3,460,422	1.12%
4	Tagalog (incl. Filipino)	1,723,342	0.56%
5	Vietnamese	1,528,461	0.49%
6	Arabic	1,305,000	0.42%
7	French (incl. Cajun)	1,210,216	0.39%
8	Korean	1,085,969	0.35%
9	Russian	984,024	0.32%
10	Hindi	875,078	0.28%
11	German	871,275	0.28%
12	Portuguese	868,893	0.28%
13	Haitian	868,051	0.28%
14	Other Indo-European languages	607,466	0.20%
15	Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, or other languages of Western Africa	597,555	0.19%
16	Amharic, Somali, or other Afro-Asiatic languages	568,673	0.18%
17	Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch or other West Germanic languages	554,468	0.18%
18	Italian	547,458	0.18%
19	Polish	529,324	0.17%
20	Urdu	499,835	0.16%
21	Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian, or other Austronesian languages	469,986	0.15%
22	Japanese	461,195	0.15%
23	Persian (incl. Farsi, Dari)	449,136	0.14%
24	Gujarati	439,016	0.14%
25	Other languages of Asia	434,164	0.14%
26	Telugu	433,342	0.14%
27	Nepali, Marathi, or other Indic languages	426,553	0.14%
28	Bengali	373,197	0.12%
29	Ukrainian or other Slavic languages	354,559	0.11%
30	Tamil	311,058	0.10%
31	Punjabi	309,373	0.10%
32	Thai, Lao, or other Tai-Kadai languages	301,337	0.10%
33	Other and unspecified languages	297,952	0.10%
34	Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa	281,164	0.09%
35	Malayalam, Kannada, or other Dravidian languages	267,878	0.09%
36	Greek	262,601	0.08%
37	Serbo-Croatian	253,364	0.08%
38	Armenian	241,604	0.08%
39	Hmong	235,722	0.08%
40	Hebrew	221,361	0.07%
41	Khmer	193,887	0.06%
42	Other Native languages of North America	181,137	0.06%
43	Navajo	161,174	0.05%
	Total Population 5 Years and Over	310,302,360

Most Spoken Language by State

State	Total Population 5 years and over	Speak only English	Spanish:	French (incl. Cajun):	Haitian:	Italian:	Portuguese:	German:	Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch or other West Germanic languages:	Greek:	Russian:	Polish:	Serbo-Croatian:	Ukrainian or other Slavic languages:	Armenian:	Persian (incl. Farsi, Dari):	Gujarati:	Hindi:	Urdu:	Punjabi:	Bengali:	Nepali, Marathi, or other Indic languages:	Other Indo-European languages:	Telugu:	Tamil:	Malayalam, Kannada, or other Dravidian languages:	Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese):	Japanese:	Korean:	Hmong:	Vietnamese:	Khmer:	Thai, Lao, or other Tai-Kadai languages:	Other languages of Asia:	Tagalog (incl. Filipino):	Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian, or other Austronesian languages:	Arabic:	Hebrew:	Amharic, Somali, or other Afro-Asiatic languages:	Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, or other languages of Western Africa:	Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa:	Navajo:	Other Native languages of North America:	Other and unspecified languages:
Alabama	4,702,043	4,452,423	156,752	6,515	1,100	1,345	2,546	8,607	741	781	1,995	364	334	813	24	1,031	3,019	2,952	1,903	507	973	1,938	1,529	1,609	448	508	10,450	2,411	10,578	90	8,563	583	1,895	773	3,401	980	5,442	237	419	1,465	2,075	21	587	1,316
Alaska	685,160	578,236	23,629	2,115	485	306	481	2,819	335	18	3,811	401	430	791	0	135	0	133	353	33	31	428	1,036	19	202	19	1,732	1,488	3,747	4,097	719	144	1,843	245	18,273	5,873	1,329	137	282	500	653	65	27,126	661
Arizona	6,666,597	4,893,977	1,342,767	16,825	1,037	7,058	4,639	16,731	3,181	2,620	6,866	5,651	7,759	4,464	1,639	6,928	5,082	14,535	3,169	3,833	3,899	6,305	13,256	8,261	6,374	3,252	33,976	6,918	9,687	97	21,100	1,785	4,292	4,549	25,839	7,078	21,347	2,982	10,722	4,244	9,769	80,932	26,780	4,392
Arkansas	2,821,729	2,605,314	155,476	3,603	260	466	1,102	3,841	1,146	146	654	517	134	679	68	403	1,097	1,910	962	478	825	808	1,132	2,040	854	483	5,345	939	2,082	1,602	4,701	284	5,366	714	2,989	8,009	2,503	210	123	1,029	424	8	546	457
California	37,105,018	20,833,290	10,514,821	126,338	7,878	53,954	91,042	93,471	26,359	19,783	170,508	21,304	20,022	41,606	195,413	211,089	51,662	203,238	54,569	142,450	30,223	58,552	75,233	67,956	60,594	37,709	1,259,668	136,009	358,018	74,317	556,398	67,756	75,646	65,969	780,024	120,223	198,914	44,540	63,318	34,305	16,547	1,043	5,841	37,418
Colorado	5,398,930	4,521,381	600,603	18,560	1,108	4,000	6,636	22,837	2,829	2,056	16,023	4,946	3,078	3,953	906	4,733	1,500	7,445	1,927	1,323	1,839	8,780	7,089	3,483	3,385	2,441	23,735	6,443	13,302	2,574	21,143	2,160	3,861	7,261	8,072	5,279	14,292	2,279	16,402	6,556	4,252	2,305	1,738	4,415
Connecticut	3,423,208	2,659,094	413,847	22,346	15,601	25,308	38,158	8,240	2,225	8,607	10,078	30,111	4,780	5,896	715	2,234	7,381	12,829	7,170	1,455	6,581	4,349	16,853	5,336	6,431	2,811	30,624	3,635	6,135	55	8,450	2,413	3,818	3,150	7,842	1,256	12,190	2,163	1,246	8,558	2,647	14	1,012	9,564
Delaware	927,658	800,419	66,429	3,340	5,023	1,430	780	2,041	3,056	1,126	981	766	202	673	0	515	2,485	3,245	1,075	214	1,558	569	633	1,801	2,130	886	8,408	505	1,523	0	1,752	82	394	1,086	3,168	96	2,435	188	354	2,740	1,917	0	45	1,588
District of Columbia	640,196	529,357	57,933	7,779	639	1,776	1,792	2,273	409	680	2,111	330	404	984	327	1,361	356	1,346	343	189	752	515	1,352	200	529	295	5,607	1,029	1,797	0	1,484	178	156	669	1,190	544	2,414	803	6,319	2,151	757	0	58	1,008
Florida	20,220,968	14,190,713	4,469,836	103,031	426,024	44,574	140,484	61,214	18,402	18,072	59,578	25,167	19,336	20,468	2,232	10,540	22,595	29,043	15,445	2,544	14,153	11,155	41,624	14,257	10,313	12,133	75,622	13,038	18,279	1,236	69,705	5,006	14,618	16,098	68,067	9,261	65,876	21,863	4,461	10,932	5,292	179	1,451	37,051
Georgia	9,981,897	8,557,217	801,066	36,241	18,694	5,304	20,796	23,174	4,981	2,398	14,679	2,855	6,666	5,656	416	9,123	23,142	32,575	14,408	2,540	10,735	14,664	13,017	20,116	12,984	8,237	51,344	10,061	49,681	3,917	54,826	2,846	7,008	10,565	14,356	5,013	19,224	4,771	22,711	37,433	14,447	57	791	11,162
Hawaii	1,365,731	1,012,068	31,421	3,944	276	902	1,609	3,357	370	391	1,517	503	430	542	57	456	17	612	50	68	51	344	998	90	296	130	32,984	38,466	18,710	51	10,121	227	4,393	523	60,019	125,233	563	448	112	194	456	19	200	12,513
Idaho	1,696,648	1,513,877	136,997	3,057	176	757	1,418	4,127	852	273	2,697	400	1,192	1,248	101	857	103	815	163	92	52	1,414	1,539	535	349	234	4,485	1,843	1,173	36	1,809	33	1,655	450	1,995	1,010	2,895	280	658	87	1,671	365	2,101	777
Illinois	12,076,132	9,269,230	1,627,789	36,311	4,962	25,531	9,514	33,578	6,950	25,788	45,614	174,381	33,254	45,438	2,290	7,651	47,371	47,316	53,333	6,195	5,575	14,429	52,216	22,427	14,904	16,267	105,919	13,606	42,198	388	25,475	3,132	11,219	18,468	81,532	7,556	71,345	5,052	20,238	26,592	8,334	106	974	5,684
Indiana	6,335,798	5,768,984	295,350	12,962	3,047	2,596	2,992	30,629	32,465	3,606	4,226	4,371	4,812	3,868	147	1,943	4,611	8,620	4,053	6,691	2,079	3,047	3,726	4,123	4,983	1,802	25,529	5,502	7,364	271	7,289	858	2,449	23,964	9,420	2,772	12,931	955	3,127	9,513	4,920	43	692	2,466
Iowa	2,984,520	2,729,246	125,611	8,090	718	696	1,933	9,299	6,742	408	2,555	638	7,915	992	41	869	1,609	3,193	1,506	481	724	4,004	1,649	3,037	1,494	762	9,701	1,350	3,045	720	9,083	905	6,067	7,874	3,392	3,238	10,909	194	2,800	2,720	6,357	54	1,310	589
Kansas	2,746,823	2,423,606	212,194	3,885	689	593	1,867	9,437	2,656	163	2,107	233	335	882	20	1,668	995	4,246	1,529	1,948	1,171	3,008	1,100	3,200	953	1,096	11,963	1,903	3,468	2,159	12,767	998	4,949	4,285	3,929	2,398	6,657	253	3,460	1,840	4,696	219	834	464
Kentucky	4,223,282	3,976,217	115,833	9,757	1,505	1,364	1,644	12,806	8,919	398	3,691	776	4,736	2,248	67	1,608	3,801	3,941	1,925	317	466	5,136	2,051	1,965	1,262	1,084	8,562	3,533	3,170	264	3,994	1,139	1,731	6,912	4,654	2,458	8,122	323	3,670	3,024	6,297	29	393	1,490
Louisiana	4,359,946	4,024,730	161,887	71,661	3,841	2,251	3,603	3,951	799	637	2,042	268	378	667	137	1,120	886	2,375	2,568	612	1,534	2,326	1,935	1,485	326	594	9,339	1,783	2,429	15	24,697	906	2,645	1,052	5,322	1,050	11,609	616	896	2,155	1,128	9	554	1,128
Maine	1,293,114	1,216,827	11,920	33,580	115	998	1,418	2,814	1,371	587	900	930	187	784	93	782	90	566	138	5	299	126	1,107	135	60	63	3,102	663	643	0	832	1,006	560	269	1,026	270	1,438	259	2,952	240	2,081	43	1,028	807
Maryland	5,785,079	4,659,253	494,447	58,642	13,462	7,928	15,627	15,075	3,385	7,017	21,298	4,203	2,011	4,705	1,685	15,487	10,219	20,816	21,875	7,147	8,731	15,629	9,709	10,530	8,155	5,722	72,246	7,012	37,565	93	20,434	2,211	5,180	11,989	32,865	4,252	20,987	6,802	35,682	58,466	12,075	0	707	13,755
Massachusetts	6,633,909	5,018,331	623,189	50,412	89,391	28,480	205,246	15,859	3,735	20,566	38,402	16,188	4,294	8,227	6,063	7,025	13,241	29,433	8,403	4,917	9,085	15,481	27,316	10,642	11,267	6,359	142,362	9,454	16,981	880	44,472	21,129	6,172	9,266	8,713	3,368	37,001	6,973	10,914	19,942	14,798	65	806	9,061
Michigan	9,497,695	8,558,003	274,889	21,095	1,761	14,664	8,328	31,714	13,052	7,033	11,552	17,810	10,780	14,958	1,971	4,222	9,926	21,415	14,250	7,612	23,456	9,763	36,372	15,768	9,285	8,929	46,745	13,258	16,551	5,795	15,321	1,327	4,600	6,533	15,584	3,132	161,272	2,616	31,878	8,050	8,599	50	2,667	5,109
Minnesota	5,322,004	4,683,934	207,272	17,530	1,522	1,762	3,367	18,190	3,208	978	14,256	2,773	3,799	3,619	57	2,249	2,250	8,197	3,565	1,153	2,451	6,725	7,441	5,645	6,607	2,396	23,805	4,330	4,499	71,410	21,167	6,157	8,961	17,276	8,077	2,294	15,129	1,120	89,605	14,515	11,519	90	6,438	4,666
Mississippi	2,784,877	2,675,719	66,351	3,771	468	967	641	2,493	489	285	620	158	21	130	0	466	570	1,512	431	858	266	1,115	353	741	546	208	4,025	745	1,018	0	6,118	265	546	152	2,946	365	3,276	121	207	810	542	0	3,839	723
Missouri	5,774,402	5,414,747	150,367	12,403	1,155	3,064	2,593	18,596	9,383	1,095	6,537	1,840	13,872	2,845	252	1,933	1,995	6,162	3,705	1,670	1,682	2,990	5,137	6,749	2,256	2,448	22,344	2,764	6,700	1,157	13,298	1,072	2,427	3,732	8,198	4,368	12,819	761	6,610	3,815	5,954	70	751	2,086
Montana	1,017,612	976,949	14,545	1,880	73	512	290	5,298	800	265	965	189	52	442	20	236	46	119	111	12	2	122	805	6	43	7	1,309	436	279	286	621	12	211	202	1,426	782	528	188	22	110	102	194	6,403	712
Nebraska	1,821,080	1,605,411	140,884	5,137	164	514	915	4,256	508	310	2,044	665	855	1,711	44	1,120	252	1,835	287	160	392	3,202	3,077	1,972	821	644	5,362	1,558	1,551	222	6,533	304	1,764	6,508	2,429	1,031	5,639	146	4,135	1,603	3,675	36	709	695
Nevada	2,877,809	2,018,616	591,262	8,480	964	4,008	4,282	7,068	1,563	1,668	5,381	1,865	3,082	3,344	3,635	4,856	1,198	3,786	1,549	2,190	1,074	2,025	5,179	1,350	1,029	683	32,559	7,000	10,630	318	11,113	940	6,870	1,554	84,525	10,592	5,943	3,636	13,068	1,634	1,549	561	2,336	2,844
New Hampshire	1,308,666	1,203,558	32,455	16,958	394	1,301	5,167	3,726	448	2,825	2,129	963	1,403	664	129	205	1,101	1,675	534	359	238	4,004	2,332	2,038	1,172	810	5,531	785	1,468	0	2,216	280	1,232	676	1,673	694	2,807	369	415	764	1,953	4	210	1,001
New Jersey	8,703,648	5,923,901	1,440,046	37,672	59,362	59,407	90,904	18,732	10,630	18,059	52,183	61,481	8,629	23,044	3,940	5,275	83,973	86,262	36,045	17,225	25,299	22,421	22,137	38,113	28,532	18,512	124,963	12,047	77,578	23	17,765	1,379	3,625	22,613	78,343	5,369	75,969	19,834	5,736	40,768	7,318	0	1,048	17,486
New Mexico	1,988,650	1,332,627	510,402	4,014	180	1,213	499	5,334	534	710	755	593	403	485	47	1,232	357	748	667	207	353	817	977	480	120	413	4,730	1,412	2,158	11	4,586	42	875	671	5,294	865	2,584	147	170	1,249	1,693	64,628	32,574	794
New York	18,960,369	13,177,639	2,801,677	133,034	147,135	141,777	49,210	54,131	198,855	61,614	240,514	85,158	31,100	40,738	7,477	26,632	19,752	56,902	74,693	36,435	144,354	33,909	91,580	10,120	10,998	30,731	600,113	33,802	91,014	238	22,710	3,558	11,905	61,488	76,783	10,697	115,658	62,459	16,571	94,133	11,807	39	3,409	37,820
North Carolina	9,773,018	8,593,424	753,142	30,994	6,166	7,362	10,219	21,190	4,327	5,420	13,257	3,750	3,419	5,278	316	4,842	13,085	20,150	7,031	3,642	3,865	12,693	8,808	18,434	10,018	5,050	38,388	7,711	16,327	9,975	24,497	3,212	7,105	9,808	15,309	7,145	29,554	1,804	6,999	12,245	9,614	135	2,039	5,269
North Dakota	719,927	674,590	13,876	2,039	147	129	185	4,925	419	58	433	191	920	321	0	408	594	363	199	23	194	1,896	1,543	153	90	20	1,352	620	1,060	42	741	14	244	106	1,812	316	1,864	9	2,086	1,222	2,010	62	2,119	532
Ohio	11,080,797	10,267,436	259,563	27,531	2,566	12,246	5,327	41,370	58,988	8,053	16,753	6,187	10,801	14,554	628	3,670	8,524	21,441	6,017	5,011	3,965	28,078	13,990	14,154	7,794	5,120	49,135	10,111	10,096	268	11,966	3,169	5,024	8,469	13,496	3,759	44,632	2,461	28,262	23,119	8,672	0	766	7,625
Oklahoma	3,695,207	3,298,124	274,323	5,301	247	958	1,465	8,559	1,557	213	2,602	732	296	938	190	1,879	1,215	2,833	2,128	464	1,399	1,655	1,404	1,371	1,285	2,129	9,806	1,738	3,795	4,787	16,752	274	2,704	6,093	4,190	4,213	5,656	947	1,116	2,851	2,351	275	13,190	1,202
Oregon	3,983,562	3,374,934	353,257	12,407	442	3,361	3,186	14,304	2,939	1,271	22,754	1,357	1,876	7,159	680	5,434	906	6,676	814	1,570	1,517	3,653	9,616	3,971	2,996	2,161	30,809	10,493	11,061	2,087	27,353	2,592	4,958	5,470	12,236	9,810	9,579	1,928	6,251	1,546	1,804	229	1,968	4,147
Pennsylvania	12,269,858	10,837,781	636,809	36,262	19,444	32,267	18,303	37,222	74,733	12,975	45,142	16,969	6,997	18,495	2,126	5,156	21,448	27,781	12,870	5,057	13,249	22,653	19,864	14,199	11,810	15,018	92,810	6,470	25,768	601	35,082	10,830	5,396	11,945	16,707	6,444	38,496	5,330	7,154	21,789	8,221	41	905	11,239
Rhode Island	1,036,579	804,411	131,450	9,582	9,409	4,989	28,440	1,816	227	1,088	2,335	1,746	107	704	721	155	740	2,167	611	74	594	560	1,872	1,018	953	694	7,300	763	1,082	502	1,404	4,163	3,332	588	1,344	159	3,115	309	218	3,957	659	26	33	1,162
South Carolina	4,793,431	4,433,280	226,398	10,448	1,282	2,727	6,490	13,279	1,225	1,925	7,666	2,013	1,200	4,189	143	1,496	5,178	5,080	1,622	676	847	1,417	3,490	2,625	1,169	838	11,240	2,753	4,585	881	8,401	935	2,181	1,824	8,286	1,173	4,991	949	1,191	2,280	1,828	12	328	2,890
South Dakota	822,247	769,781	17,785	955	62	123	215	4,912	608	73	1,225	87	524	741	4	170	74	378	234	0	94	1,605	345	279	37	114	909	186	591	81	422	157	560	1,283	1,398	460	951	25	2,708	349	2,547	53	8,674	468
Tennessee	6,453,630	5,976,249	271,483	10,710	2,151	2,263	3,328	11,653	4,523	1,165	4,816	1,687	1,608	2,708	108	2,986	6,761	6,935	2,728	379	1,162	4,827	10,004	4,498	2,105	1,985	15,930	4,420	6,954	600	10,230	1,193	8,054	4,380	7,297	2,433	29,622	476	8,351	7,060	5,387	45	716	1,660
Texas	26,903,358	17,460,783	7,717,053	75,459	7,845	13,064	30,660	62,139	11,274	6,936	27,490	8,695	9,879	9,680	1,702	38,094	40,436	86,267	85,078	9,795	23,563	49,063	30,014	58,913	37,577	46,869	179,035	22,522	62,095	1,887	229,759	12,117	22,078	30,006	84,921	22,033	108,323	6,201	39,458	81,296	36,975	920	3,575	11,829
Utah	2,985,731	2,524,732	310,259	7,865	255	2,328	14,013	8,943	1,994	1,337	3,929	930	3,520	1,219	874	2,328	1,025	2,466	1,462	1,383	252	3,057	4,566	1,808	723	908	15,312	5,567	4,668	292	7,921	1,628	3,674	2,675	6,565	13,177	4,794	157	2,502	930	3,131	7,401	1,521	1,640
Vermont	612,469	578,734	7,122	8,356	51	865	401	1,965	320	303	856	439	1,260	352	29	199	137	313	145	289	68	2,029	800	199	151	73	1,779	372	414	0	356	107	289	676	612	73	264	315	305	558	360	0	101	432
Virginia	8,080,985	6,750,624	595,248	34,402	6,375	8,399	12,272	25,903	4,150	6,542	16,920	4,356	3,989	5,585	1,945	31,197	10,152	29,990	34,314	7,828	15,896	18,008	16,947	25,579	10,897	7,436	59,039	10,739	57,781	60	49,316	5,548	9,968	14,426	46,199	5,969	57,191	1,929	39,896	24,327	6,003	111	588	6,941
Washington	7,167,821	5,713,611	620,206	25,612	1,792	4,581	9,645	25,818	4,029	1,991	61,502	5,327	5,827	31,819	1,867	13,689	3,837	34,000	7,749	18,410	3,690	10,219	24,611	14,891	10,612	8,652	123,749	27,180	50,061	2,114	67,154	16,037	13,166	11,942	63,151	32,298	21,583	3,854	40,012	7,802	13,280	260	3,581	6,610
West Virginia	1,707,826	1,665,642	17,109	2,225	58	1,522	388	2,151	704	535	575	150	43	247	17	192	438	876	453	0	461	991	547	393	251	48	2,064	926	670	0	1,087	11	142	262	1,351	404	3,255	50	48	626	373	0	145	396
Wisconsin	5,542,337	5,064,681	256,965	7,945	522	3,334	2,649	27,487	10,897	1,694	5,853	5,823	4,247	2,818	241	1,152	1,692	7,520	3,645	2,852	1,375	3,921	7,404	4,539	2,848	2,043	16,497	2,292	3,611	39,223	4,457	774	3,329	6,622	6,237	2,279	8,948	875	2,830	3,317	1,620	122	3,194	1,963
Wyoming	542,379	505,239	25,145	1,155	28	134	184	1,921	176	59	647	87	166	188	0	105	92	45	31	0	103	128	151	89	40	52	1,079	604	329	0	301	9	200	53	865	435	135	17	3	144	25	234	1,736	245
Puerto Rico	3,188,859	164,117	3,019,785	1,193	105	504	507	332	48	0	45	0	9	8	0	0	57	116	0	0	37	15	52	34	0	0	1,326	48	50	0	15	0	0	0	16	0	291	48	0	23	18	0	0	60

Frequently Asked Questions

What questions get asked on the U.S. Census about Language?

When the American Community Survey (ACS) is conducted, there are very specific questions that get asked for scientific reasons. If you’d like to learn more (and see the individual questions), read the question-by-question Fact Sheet from the U.S. Census.

Why are some languages listed as “other” or have “other” in the description?

Because of confidentiality restrictions, every language — and respective data — is not available for public use. Therefore, the most recent tables only contain 42 language categories. Some languages will say “other” but will comprise of several individual languages.

Does the Census Bureau sometimes portray the information differently?

With some Census data, you’ll find four major language groups. They are Spanish, Other Indo-European Languages, Asian and Pacific Island Languages, and All Other Languages. Here’s the details for each one:

1. Spanish includes Spanish, Spanish Creole, and Ladino.

2. Other Indo-European Languages include most languages of Europe and the Indic languages of India. These include the Germanic languages such as German, Yiddish, and Dutch; the Scandinavian languages such as Swedish and Norwegian; the Romance languages such as French, Italian, and Portuguese; the Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian; the Indic languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, and Urdu; Celtic languages; Greek; Baltic languages; and Iranian languages.

3. Asian and Pacific Island Languages include Chinese; Korean; Japanese; Vietnamese; Hmong; Khmer; Lao; Thai; Tagalog or Filipino; the Dravidian languages of India such as Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam; and other languages of Asia and the Pacific, including the Philippine, Polynesian, and Micronesian languages.

4. All Other Languages include Uralic languages such as Hungarian; the Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew; languages of Africa; Native North American languages, including the American Indian and Alaska Native languages; and indigenous languages of Central and South America.

Are there margin of errors with numbers listed here?

Yes, there are margin of errors for each statistic listed here but we did not include them in this list. If you’d like to see those margins, its best to go to download the data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

What interactive tool can I use to download additional information?