Of the 292 million people age 5 and older in the U.S. in 2011, 60.6 million individuals, or 21 percent, reported speaking a language other than English at home. This number grew by 158 percent from 1980 to 2010, while the nation’s overall population age 5 years and older grew by 38 percent. Check out this viz-of-the-week to see which languages grew the most.
The statistics show us not only that people spoke a language other than English at home, but also how well they spoke English.
If you are wondering what languages are spoken in your community, you can look it up with a new tool. The 2011 Language Mapper illustrates the geographic concentration of the population speaking 15 individual languages. The mapper, which uses data collected in the American Community Survey from 2007 to 2011, also shows, for each of these languages, the concentration of those who spoke English less than “very well.” You can put in an address to get to our area at the upper right of the map, and also select the language combination you are interested in as well.
More from the Census Bureau.
