California Languages

Updated February 23, 2017 | Factmonster Staff

The Question:

I was doing a project on the state of California and I was wondering what the all the different languages spoken in California are?

The Answer:

We're not aware of a listing of all the languages spoken in California; there are probably hundreds. We, can, however, offer a listing of the most popular.

According to data from the 2000 U.S. Census, 60.5% of Californians speak only English, while 39.5% speak another language (either instead of, or in addition to, English). Spanish and Spanish Creole compose the second most popular language grouping in the state, being spoken by 25.8% of Californians. Chinese is a distant third, spoken by 2.6%. Tagalog is spoken by 2.0%, Vietnamese by 1.3%, and Korean by 0.9%. Armenian, Japanese, German, and Persian are spoken by 0.5% each.

-The Fact Monster

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