Number of People in the U.S. Speaking a Language Other than English at Home, 2000 and 2011
Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff 
In the United States, there is a surprising number of people speaking a language other than English at home—more than 60 million as of 2011. Spanish/Spanish Creole is the most spoken, with more than 37 million speakers, but French, Chinese, German, and Tagalog are common as well.
| Language | Persons 5 years and over who speak language, 2000 Census | Persons 5 years and over who speak language, 2011 |
|---|---|---|
| Population, 5 years and over | 262,375,152 | 291,524,091 |
| Speak only English | 215,423,557 | 230,887,080 |
| Speak other language | 46,951,595 | 60,637,010 |
| Spanish or Spanish Creole | 28,101,052 | 37,579,787 |
| Other Indo-European languages | 10,017,989 | 10,847,412 |
| French (incl. Patois, Cajun) | 1,643,838 | 1,301,443 |
| French Creole | 453,368 | 753,990 |
| Italian | 1,008,370 | 723,632 |
| Portuguese or Portuguese Creole | 564,630 | 673,566 |
| German | 1,383,442 | 1,083,637 |
| Yiddish | 178,945 | 160,968 |
| Other West Germanic languages | 251,135 | 290,461 |
| Scandinavian languages | 162,252 | 135,025 |
| Greek | 365,436 | 304,928 |
| Russian | 706,242 | 905,843 |
| Polish | 667,414 | 607,531 |
| Serbo-Croatian | 233,865 | 269,624 |
| Other Slavic languages | 301,079 | 336,062 |
| Armenian | 202,708 | 246,915 |
| Persian | 312,085 | 407,586 |
| Gujarathi | 235,988 | 358,422 |
| Hindi | 317,057 | 648,983 |
| Urdu | 262,900 | 373,851 |
| Other Indic languages | 439,289 | 815,345 |
| Other Indo-European languages | 327,946 | 449,600 |
| Asian and Pacific Island languages | 6,960,065 | 9,485,464 |
| Chinese | 2,022,143 | 2,882,497 |
| Japanese | 477,997 | 436,110 |
| Korean | 894,063 | 1,141,277 |
| Mon-Khmer, Cambodian | 181,889 | 212,505 |
| Miao, Hmong | 168,063 | 211,227 |
| Thai | 120,464 | 163,251 |
| Laotian | 149,303 | 140,866 |
| Vietnamese | 1,009,627 | 1,419,539 |
| Other Asian languages | 398,434 | 855,303 |
| Tagalog | 1,224,241 | 1,594,413 |
| Other Pacific Island languages | 313,841 | 428,476 |
| Other languages | 1,872,489 | 2,664,357 |
| Navajo | 178,014 | 169,369 |
| Other Native North American languages | 203,466 | 195,407 |
| Hungarian | 117,973 | 93,102 |
| Arabic | 614,582 | 951,699 |
| Hebrew | 195,374 | 216,343 |
| African languages | 418,505 | 884,660 |
| Other and unspecified | 144,575 | 153,777 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000, Summary File 3, Table PCT 10, released Feb. 25, 2003; American Community Survey, 2011: Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over.
