A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau states that from 1980 to 2007 the percentage of non-English speakers grew by 140%, while the nation’s overall population grew by 34%. People who speak Spanish accounted for the largest numeric increase (23.4 million, or 211%) during the 27 years under study. Of those who speak a language other than English at home, 62% speak Spanish. The next most common languages are Chinese, French or French Creole (Haitian) and Tagalog.

 

New York City, long a gateway for arriving immigrants, is today home to as many as 800 languages, with more than 170 spoken by students in the city’s public schools.

 

Language diversity differs greatly from state to state, ranging from 42.6% speaking other languages in California to 2.3% in West Virginia. Some foreign language-speakers are also concentrated in specific metropolitan areas. For example, 76% of Yiddish speakers live in New York, while 72% of Armenian speakers live in the Los Angeles area.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

New Census Bureau Report Analyzes Nation’s Linguistic Diversity (U.S. Census Bureau)

Language Use in the United States: 2007 (U.S. Census Bureau) (pdf)

Listening to (and Saving) the World’s Languages (by Sam Roberts, New York Times)