Where do the most people speak another language at home? 🗣️
1Guess
Every year the Census Bureau sends its big survey to a sample of homes, and asks about everybody aged 5 and over in them: do you speak a language other than English at home? Out of every 100 people in a state, how many say yes? Tap the states most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→4 in order
New York! All those big cities. Has to be New York 🐾
2Answer
The real order is…
California — about 45 out of every 100 people say yes, close to half. For the country as a whole it is about 23 out of 100, nearly one in four. At the far end sits West Virginia at 2.8, the smallest number on the list: California's share is about sixteen times as big. And the map does not simply follow how many people a state has. New Mexico — the 36th most populous state — comes in ahead of Arizona and ahead of Illinois. Alaska, the 48th, comes in ahead of Michigan. One thing this number never says: a “yes” does not mean somebody speaks English poorly. That is a different question, on a different line of the same form.
📚 BackgroundThe American Community Survey does not ask one question about language. It asks three, one after another: does this person speak a language other than English at home; what is this language; and how well does this person speak English. This quiz is about the first one only. That matters, because a “yes” on the first line says nothing at all about the third — it does not mean somebody speaks English poorly. It only means that in that home, at least some of the time, another language is used.(U.S. Census Bureau, “About Language Use in the U.S. Population”)
New York! All those big cities. Has to be New York 🐾
3Compare
Speak a language other than English at home (% of people 5 and over, ACS 2024)
🇺🇸 United States (national)23 %
California#145.3 %
Most: California (45.3 %); fewest: West Virginia (2.8 %).
Note: from the American Community Survey, which the Census Bureau sends to a sample of addresses, not to everybody — so every number here is an estimate published with a give-or-take, and two states within a few tenths of each other may really be tied. Where two states show exactly the same number, the order between them in this list is not a real difference. Children under 5 are not asked. Saying yes does not mean a person speaks English poorly; how well someone speaks English is asked separately on the same form. U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 1-year estimates.