The United States is home to a melting pot of diverse languages. This map shows the most commonly spoken languages in the US after English and Spanish. The data on the map was provided by The US Census Bureau’s annual survey that asks respondents, among other questions, what language they mainly speak in their homes.
A variety of languages are shown on the map. German takes the lead after English and Spanish as the most commonly spoken language in nine different states followed by French which is most common in six states plus D.C. Vietnamese comes after French as being the most common language in six states.
Here is a rank of all languages:
1. German
Estimated number of speakers: 905,326
States where it’s commonly spoken: Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina.
2. French
Estimated number of speakers: 1,184,736
States where it’s commonly spoken: Louisiana, North Carolina, Maryland, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire.
3. Vietnamese
Estimated number of speakers: 1,527,371
States where it’s commonly spoken: Texas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, Mississippi.
4. Chinese
Estimated number of speakers: 2,155,939
States where it’s commonly spoken: New York, Washington, Arkansas, Missouri, Utah.
5. Portuguese
Estimated number of speakers: 763,340
States where it’s commonly spoken: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island.
6. Korean
Estimated number of speakers: 1,104,145
States where it’s commonly spoken: Virginia, Alabama, Georgia
7. Arabic
Estimated number of speakers: 1,229,949
States where it’s commonly spoken: West Virginia, Tennessee, Michigan
8. Navajo
Estimated number of speakers: 166,856
States where it’s commonly spoken: New Mexico, Arizona
9. French
Estimated number of speakers: 900,596
States where it’s commonly spoken: Florida, Delaware
10. Tagalog
Estimated number of speakers: 1,753,712
States where it’s commonly spoken: California, Nevada
11. Polish
Estimated number of speakers: 512,332
12. Nepali
Estimated number of speakers: 202,218
13. Hmong
Estimated number of speakers: 232,161
Why does French appear at rank 2 and 9? Should 9 be labelled French creole? Great article though! Thank you.
Obviously an error here. French is listed twice.
I guess the “rank” that you provided is by number of states that have this as the most commonly spoken language (excluding English and Spanish)? That wasn’t immediately clear. Even so, it’s unclear why you would rank French above Vietnamese since they both have six states.
It looks like #9 was meant to be Haitian Creole.