Languages of the United States
The most commonly used language in the United States is English, which is the national language and de facto official language. While the U.S. Congress has never passed a law to make English the country's official language, the federal government primarily uses English and a 2025 executive order declared English official. In addition, 32 U.S. states out of 50 and all five U.S. territories have laws that recognize English as an official language, with three states and most territories having adopted English plus one or more other official languages. Overall, 430 languages are spoken or signed by the population, of which 177 are indigenous to the U.S. or its territories, and accommodations for non-English-language speakers are sometimes made under various federal, state, and local laws.
The majority of the U.S. population speaks only English at home as of 2024, according to the American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau. The second most common language by far is Spanish, spoken by 13.9% of the population, followed by Chinese, spoken by around 1% of the population. Other languages spoken by over a million residents are Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Korean, and Russian. Only 8.4% of U.S. residents report that they speak English less than "very well".
Many residents of the U.S. unincorporated territories speak their own native languages or a local language, such as Spanish in Puerto Rico and English in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Over the course of U.S. history, many languages have been brought into what became the United States from Europe, Africa, Asia, other parts of the Americas, and Oceania. Some of these languages have developed into dialects and dialect families, creole languages, and pidgin languages. American Sign Language and Interlingua, an international auxiliary language, were created in the United States.
Most common languages
Based on annual data from the American Community Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau regularly publishes information on the most common languages spoken at home. It also reports on the English-speaking ability of people who speak a language other than English at home. In 2023, Spanish speakers made up about three-fifths of all speakers of languages other than English in the United States. In 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau published information on the number of speakers of some 350 languages as surveyed by the ACS from 2009 to 2013, but it does not regularly tabulate and report data for that many languages.The most spoken languages at home in the United States in 2020:
- English 245.69 million
- Spanish 42.03 million
- Chinese 3.40 million
- Tagalog 1.71 million
- Vietnamese 1.52 million
- Arabic 1.39 million
- French 1.18 million
- Korean 1.07 million
- Russian 1.04 million
- Portuguese 937,000
- Haitian Creole 895,000
- Hindi 865,000
- German 857,000
- Polish 533,000
- Italian 513,000
- Urdu 508,000
- Persian 472,000
- Telugu 460,000
- Japanese 455,000
- Gujarati 437,000
- Bengali 403,000
- Tamil 341,000
- Punjabi 319,000
- Thais 284,000
- Serbo-Croatian 266,000
- Armenian 256,000
- Greek 253,000
- Hmong 240,000
- Hebrew 215,000
- Khmer 193,000
- Navajo 155,000
- other Indo-European languages 662,000
- Yoruba, Twi, Igbo and other languages of West Africa 640,000
- Amharic, Somali, and other Afro-Asiatic languages 596,000
- Dutch, Afrikaans, Frisian, Luxembourgish, Scots, Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch, Low German, and other West Germanic languages 574,000
- Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian, and other Austronesian languages 486,000
- Other languages of Asia 460,000
- Nepali, Marathi, and other Indic languages 448,000
- Ukrainian and other Slavic languages 385,000
- Swahili and other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa 288,000
- Malayalam, Kannada, and other Dravidian languages 280,000
- Other Native languages of North America 169,000
- other and unspecified languages 327,000
The ACS does not tabulate the number of people who report the use of American Sign Language at home, so such data must come from other sources. While modern estimates indicate that American Sign Language was signed by as many as 500,000 Americans in 1972, estimates as recently as 2011 were closer to 100,000. Various cultural factors, such as the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, have resulted in far greater educational opportunities for hearing-impaired children, which could double or triple the number of current users of American Sign Language.
English is the most common language spoken in U.S. homes, with approximately 247 million speakers as well as numerous bilingual speakers. Spanish is spoken by approximately 42 million people. The United States has the world's fourth largest Spanish-speaking population, outnumbered only by Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina; other estimates put the United States at over 50 million, second only to Mexico. Throughout the Southwestern United States and Puerto Rico, long-established Spanish-speaking communities coexist with large numbers of more recent Hispanophone immigrants. Although many new Latin American immigrants are less than fluent in English, nearly all second-generation Hispanic and Latino Americans speak English fluently, while only about half still speak Spanish.
According to the 2000 U.S. census, people of German ancestry made up the largest single ethnic group in the United States, but German language was the fourth most-spoken language in the country. Italian, Polish, and French are still widely spoken among populations descending from immigrants from those countries in the early 20th century, but the use of these languages is dwindling as the older generations die. Russian is also spoken by immigrant populations.
Tagalog and Vietnamese have over one million speakers each in the United States, almost entirely within recent immigrant populations. Both languages, along with the varieties of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, are now used in elections in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington.
Native American languages are spoken in smaller pockets of the country, but these populations are decreasing, and the languages are seldom widely used outside of reservations. Besides English, Spanish, French, German, Navajo and other Native American languages, all other languages are usually learned from immigrant ancestors that came after the time of independence or learned through some form of education.
American Sign Language is the most common sign language in the United States, although there are unrelated sign languages that have also been developed in the States and territories—mostly in the Pacific. No concrete numbers exist for signers but something upwards of 250,000 is common.
The most widely taught foreign languages in the United States, in terms of enrollment numbers from kindergarten through university undergraduate education, are Spanish, French, and German. Other commonly taught languages include Latin, Japanese, American Sign Language, Italian, and Chinese.
Official languages
English is typically used by the federal government and is considered the national language. In 2025, Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14224, declaring English the official language of the United States, and federal agencies recognize English as official under the order. However, the U.S. has never had an official language de jure, as Congress has never passed legislation to designate one at the federal level.Outside of Puerto Rico, English is the primary language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties, federal court rulings, and all other official pronouncements. Nonetheless, laws require some documents, such as ballots, to be printed in both English and one or more other languages if there are large numbers of non-English speakers in an area. Proceedings of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico are required by federal law to be in English, despite the predominantly Spanish-speaking population and the status of Spanish as an official language of the territorial government.
Thirty-two of the 50 states have adopted legislation granting official or co-official status to English, in some cases as part of what has been called the English-only movement. Typically only "English" is specified, not a particular variety like American English. English is typically used in states that do not have an official language.
Hawaiian and English are the official languages of Hawaii, reflecting the Hawaiian Kingdom's history of trade and diplomacy with Britain in the decades prior to its annexation by the United States in 1898. Alaska has made some 20 native languages official, along with English; for example, Alaska provides voting information in Iñupiaq, Central Yup'ik, Gwich'in, Siberian Yupik, and Koyukon among others. On July 1, 2019, a law went into effect making Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota the official indigenous languages of South Dakota.
French is a de facto, but unofficial, language in Maine and Louisiana, and since 1848 New Mexico law has granted Spanish speakers in the state the right to receive many services in Spanish. The government of Louisiana offers services and most documents in both English and French, and New Mexico does so in English and Spanish.
English is at least one of the official languages in all five permanently inhabited U.S. territories. In Puerto Rico, both English and Spanish are official, although Spanish has been declared the principal official language. The school system and the government operate almost entirely in Spanish, but federal law requires the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico to use English, like the rest of the federal court system.
Guam recognizes English and Chamorro. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, English is the only official language. In American Samoa, both English and Samoan are officially recognized; English is common but Samoan is also seen in some official communications. In the Northern Mariana Islands, English, Chamorro, and Carolinian are official.
In New Mexico, although the state constitution does not specify an official language, laws are published in English and Spanish, and government materials and services are legally required to be made accessible to speakers of both languages as well as Navajo and various Pueblo languages. New Mexico also has its own dialect of Spanish, which differs from Spanish spoken in Latin America.
Algonquian, Cherokee, and Sioux are among many other Native American languages which are official or co-official on many U.S. Indian reservations and pueblos. In Oklahoma before statehood in 1907, territory officials debated whether or not to have Cherokee, Choctaw, and Muscogee languages as co-official, but the idea never gained ground. Cherokee is officially recognized by the Cherokee Nation within the Cherokee tribal jurisdiction area in eastern Oklahoma.
After New Amsterdam was transferred to English administration in the late 17th century, English supplanted Dutch as the official language. However, "Dutch remained the primary language for many civil and ecclesiastical functions and most private affairs for the next century." The Jersey Dutch dialect is now extinct.
California has agreed to allow the publication of state documents in other languages to represent minority groups and immigrant communities. Languages such as Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Persian, Russian, Vietnamese, and Thai appear in official state documents, and the Department of Motor Vehicles publishes in nine languages.
The issue of multilingualism also applies in the states of Arizona and Texas. While the constitution of Texas has no official language policy, Arizona passed a proposition in 2006 declaring English as the official language. Nonetheless, Arizona law requires the distribution of voting ballots in Spanish, as well as indigenous languages such as Navajo, O'odham and Hopi, in counties where they are spoken.
A popular urban legend called the Muhlenberg legend claims that German was almost made an official language of the United States but lost by one vote. In reality, it was a request by a group of German immigrants to have an official translation of laws into German. House speaker Frederick Muhlenberg has since become associated with the legend.