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.