Most Common Languages in USA

50 Languages with Greatest Number of Speakers:
United States 1990

Detailed Language Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English
for Persons 5 Years and Over
Ranked by Total Number of Speakers

These are the results of these questions from the U.S. 1990 Census:
"Does this person speak a language other than English at home?"
"What is this language?"
"How well does this person speak English --very well, well, not well, not at all?"

ENGLISH ABILITY

1990
RANK LANGUAGE TOTAL VERY
WELL WELL NOT WELL NOT
AT ALL

UNITED STATES 230,445,777

ENGLISH ONLY 198,600,798

TOTAL NONENGLISH 31,844,979 17,862,477 7,310,301 4,826,958 1,845,243

1 SPANISH 17,339,172 9,033,407 3,804,792 3,040,828 1,460,145
2 FRENCH 1,702,176 1,226,043 318,409 149,505 8,219
3 GERMAN 1,547,099 1,161,127 284,809 96,804 4,359
4 ITALIAN 1,308,648 874,032 283,354 134,114 17,148
5 CHINESE 1,249,213 496,277 379,720 264,240 108,976
6 TAGALOG 843,251 556,252 223,971 58,320 4,708
7 POLISH 723,483 455,551 169,548 85,298 13,086

8 KOREAN 626,478 242,939 195,120 154,617 33,802

9 VIETNAMESE 507,069 186,207 177,689 118,180 24,993

10 PORTUGUESE 429,860 235,283 96,243 71,305 27,029

11 JAPANESE 427,657 203,197 133,364 83,276 7,820

12 GREEK 388,260 266,072 78,153 38,799 5,236

13 ARABIC 355,150 235,509 82,149 31,596 5,896

14 HINDI (URDU) 331,484 234,705 67,276 24,365 5,138

15 RUSSIAN 241,798 110,368 66,126 50,365 14,939

16 YIDDISH 213,064 151,377 44,213 15,431 2,043

17 THAI (LAOTIAN) 206,266 78,246 70,177 47,374 10,469

18 PERSIAN 201,865 125,135 51,517 19,749 5,464

19 FRENCH CREOLE 187,658 89,056 56,730 35,710 6,162

20 ARMENIAN 149,694 74,586 36,408 25,401 13,299

21 NAVAHO 148,530 82,261 44,481 14,172 7,616

22 HUNGARIAN 147,902 96,200 37,875 12,691 1,136

23 HEBREW 144,292 110,440 26,685 6,471 696

24 DUTCH 142,684 108,936 27,888 5,470 390

25 MON-KHMER (CAMBODIAN) 127,441 33,996 38,782 40,921 13,742

26 GUJARATHI 102,418 67,704 22,657 8,998 3,059

27 UKRAINIAN 96,568 60,949 22,515 11,870 1,234

28 CZECH 92,485 65,336 21,435 5,422 292

29 PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH 83,525 47,402 31,310 4,112 701

30 MIAO (HMONG) 81,877 18,328 25,645 26,505 11,399

31 NORWEGIAN 80,723 63,681 12,706 4,174 162

32 SLOVAK 80,388 58,311 16,322 5,503 252

33 SWEDISH 77,511 62,724 11,364 3,234 189
34 SERBOCROATIAN 70,964 43,303 18,149 8,365 1,147
35 KRU 65,848 53,563 10,630 1,511 144
36 RUMANIAN 65,265 33,552 20,332 8,922 2,459
37 LITHUANIAN 55,781 38,775 11,930 4,820 256
38 FINNISH 54,350 40,996 10,230 3,001 123
39 PANJABI 50,005 31,837 10,448 5,616 2,104
40 FORMOSAN 46,044 20,791 15,562 7,712 1,979
41 CROATIAN 45,206 29,989 10,964 3,912 341
42 TURKISH 41,876 25,684 10,515 4,653 1,024
43 ILOCANO 41,131 18,197 14,770 7,354 810
44 BENGALI 38,101 25,417 9,808 2,578 298
45 DANISH 35,639 29,665 4,771 1,135 68
46 SYRIAC 35,146 20,636 9,106 3,956 1,448
47 SAMOAN 34,914 23,660 7,712 3,129 413
48 MALAYALAM 33,949 21,131 10,093 2,006 719
49 CAJUN 33,670 23,834 7,577 2,073 186
50 AMHARIC 31,505 18,643 9,359 3,078 425

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Language Use Table, 1990 Census of Population, CPHL-133
Contact: Education and Social Stratification Branch, Population Division 301-457-2464

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