After English and Spanish, the most spoken languages in the US are Chinese (about 3.7 million people speak it at home), Tagalog (1.9 million), Vietnamese (1.6 million), Arabic (1.5 million) and French (1.3 million). Korean, Portuguese, Hindi, Haitian Creole and Russian follow, each with just over one million speakers, according to the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey.
That is the short answer. The longer one is more fun: one of these languages is really several, four of them only joined the million-speaker club in the last few years, and a language that used to be far more common in American homes has quietly slipped below the million mark. Here are the numbers, where they come from and what they mean. Explore our translation services for details.
Key Takeaways
- About 74.1 million people in the US, or 23% of everyone age 5 and older, spoke a language other than English at home in 2024.
- Spanish accounts for roughly 44.9 million of them, nearly three times the next ten languages combined.
- Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic and French are the five largest languages after English and Spanish.
- Ten languages besides Spanish now have more than one million home speakers each, up from six in 2019.
- Census figures count the language people use at home, not everyone who can speak or has studied a language.
What Are the Most Spoken Languages in the US After English and Spanish?
The figures below come from the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey table on language spoken at home (table B16001, 1-year estimates). The survey covers people age 5 and older, a group of about 321.7 million. Of those, 247.7 million (77%) speak only English at home and 44.9 million (13.9%) speak Spanish.
Everyone else is spread across hundreds of languages. These ten sit at the top.
| Rank after English and Spanish | Language (Census category) | People who speak it at home, 2024 | Share of US population age 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese) | 3,734,956 | 1.16% |
| 2 | Tagalog (including Filipino) | 1,921,526 | 0.60% |
| 3 | Vietnamese | 1,599,409 | 0.50% |
| 4 | Arabic | 1,484,439 | 0.46% |
| 5 | French (including Cajun) | 1,276,702 | 0.40% |
| 6 | Korean | 1,150,701 | 0.36% |
| 7 | Portuguese | 1,099,503 | 0.34% |
| 8 | Hindi | 1,059,933 | 0.33% |
| 9 | Haitian Creole | 1,041,231 | 0.32% |
| 10 | Russian | 1,021,165 | 0.32% |
Add the ten together and you get about 15.4 million people. Spanish alone has almost three times that. The gap between second place and third place in American language rankings is not a step, it is a cliff. Explore our Spanish dialects spoken across regions for details.
A Closer Look at the Top Five
Chinese
The Census Bureau groups Mandarin, Cantonese and other Chinese varieties into one category, which is why “Chinese” tops the list so comfortably. Spoken Mandarin and Cantonese are not mutually intelligible, so a family from Guangzhou and a family from Beijing may tick the same box and still need different interpreters. Our guide to the Chinese languages explains the differences.
Tagalog
Tagalog, counted together with Filipino (the national language of the Philippines, which is based on it), is the third most common non-English language in the country. Many Filipino Americans are also fluent in English: in the Census Bureau’s analysis of 2019 data, only 30% of Tagalog speakers said they spoke English less than “very well,” compared with 35% of Arabic speakers, 52% of Chinese speakers and 57% of Vietnamese speakers. The Philippines has many other languages too, as our post on the languages spoken in the Philippines shows.
Vietnamese
Vietnamese is the great growth story of the late twentieth century. The number of people speaking it at home rose 695% between 1980 and 2019, according to the Census Bureau’s Language Use in the United States report. Growth has since leveled off.
Arabic
Arabic is climbing faster than the three languages above it. Home speakers went from about 1.26 million in 2019 to 1.48 million in 2024, an increase of nearly 18%. The written standard is shared across the Arab world, but everyday spoken varieties (Egyptian, Levantine, Iraqi, Moroccan and more) differ a great deal. Explore our translation needs for immigrant communities for details.
French
The French category includes Cajun French, a reminder that French has been spoken in Louisiana for centuries. Haitian Creole is counted separately, and it has more than a million speakers of its own.
Which Languages Are Growing the Fastest?
Comparing the 2019 and 2024 surveys shows how quickly the middle of the list is moving. In 2019 only six languages besides Spanish had more than a million home speakers. By 2024, Portuguese, Hindi, Haitian Creole and Russian had all crossed the line.
| Language | Home speakers, 2019 | Home speakers, 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portuguese | 845,801 | 1,099,503 | +30.0% |
| Hindi | 892,596 | 1,059,933 | +18.7% |
| Arabic | 1,260,437 | 1,484,439 | +17.8% |
| Haitian Creole | 924,817 | 1,041,231 | +12.6% |
| Tagalog | 1,763,585 | 1,921,526 | +9.0% |
| French | 1,171,775 | 1,276,702 | +9.0% |
| Russian | 941,454 | 1,021,165 | +8.5% |
| Korean | 1,075,247 | 1,150,701 | +7.0% |
| Chinese | 3,494,544 | 3,734,956 | +6.9% |
| Vietnamese | 1,570,526 | 1,599,409 | +1.8% |
Both columns are survey estimates with a margin of error, so treat small differences as approximate. The overall direction is clear, though: Portuguese, Hindi and Arabic are rising quickly. Explore our communicating across language communities for details.
Languages can fall as well. German is the clearest example. Between 1980 and 2019 its number of home speakers dropped by 43.6%, to about 895,000, as the children and grandchildren of earlier immigrants grew up speaking English.
How Does the Census Bureau Count Language Speakers?
The American Community Survey goes out to a sample of US households every year. Its language questions ask three things about each person age 5 or older:
- Does this person speak a language other than English at home?
- If so, what is that language?
- How well does this person speak English?
The Census has asked about language in some form since 1890. The wording matters, because it shapes what the numbers can and cannot tell you:
- It measures home use. Someone who studied French for six years but speaks English at home is not counted as a French speaker.
- It records one language per person. A trilingual household may be simplified to a single answer.
- It groups some languages. “Chinese” covers Mandarin and Cantonese, and smaller languages are often bundled into regional categories.
Speaking another language at home does not mean struggling with English. According to a USAFacts analysis of the 2024 data, 60.9% of people who speak a non-English language at home say they speak English “very well.” Among the million-plus language groups, Hindi speakers reported the highest rate (83.5%) and Vietnamese speakers the lowest (42.6%). Explore our professional Arabic translation services for details.
Where Are These Languages Spoken?
Language diversity is not spread evenly. The same analysis found that California, Texas, Florida and New York are home to more than half of everyone who speaks a non-English language at home. In California, 45.3% of residents age 5 and older do. In West Virginia, the figure is 2.8%.
The long view is just as striking. In 1980, about 23.1 million people spoke a language other than English at home, roughly one in ten. By 2019 the figure was 67.8 million, and the Census Bureau noted that it had nearly tripled. In 2024 it stood at about 74.1 million, close to one in four.
What These Numbers Mean for Translation
Behind every figure in those tables are people with paperwork. A Vietnamese birth certificate for a green card application. A Brazilian diploma for a university admissions office. An Arabic marriage certificate for a court, or a Korean bank statement for a mortgage lender. Offices that work in English usually need such documents in English, and many ask for a certified translation: a complete translation accompanied by a signed statement from the translator confirming that it is accurate and that they are competent in both languages. Explore our certified Spanish translation services for details.
Because categories like Chinese and Arabic contain several varieties, it helps to tell your translator exactly where a document comes from. Our human translators work across all of the languages on this list, plus many that never make a top ten.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the third most spoken language in the US?
Chinese is the third most spoken language in the US, after English and Spanish. About 3.7 million people age 5 and older spoke Chinese at home in 2024, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. That category combines Mandarin, Cantonese and other Chinese varieties. Tagalog is fourth with about 1.9 million speakers, and Vietnamese is fifth with about 1.6 million.
How many people in the US speak a language other than English at home?
About 74.1 million people, or 23% of the US population age 5 and older, spoke a language other than English at home in 2024. Spanish speakers make up roughly 44.9 million of that total, which is about six in ten. The remaining 29 million or so are spread across hundreds of languages, ten of which have more than a million home speakers each.
Does the United States have an official language?
For most of its history the US had no official language at the federal level, because Congress never passed a law naming one. In 2025, Executive Order 14224 designated English as the official language of the United States. An executive order is not an act of Congress, though, and it does not change which languages people speak at home: nearly one in four US residents age 5 and older still uses a language other than English there. Explore our French language translation services for details.
Is Chinese counted as one language in Census data?
Yes. The Census Bureau’s main language table reports a single “Chinese” category that includes Mandarin and Cantonese, along with other Chinese varieties. That is convenient for rankings but can hide real differences, since spoken Mandarin and Cantonese are not mutually intelligible. For written documents, it also matters whether the text uses Simplified or Traditional characters, so it is worth mentioning the document’s place of origin when you request a translation.
Do I need a certified translation for documents in these languages?
It depends on who is receiving the document. Immigration authorities, courts, universities and licensing boards in the US commonly ask for a certified translation of any document that is not in English, which means a full translation with a signed statement of accuracy from the translator. For personal reading or informal business use, a standard translation is often enough. Always check the receiving office’s written requirements first.
Need a Document Translated From One of These Languages?
Whether your document is in Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic or a language far further down the list, a human translator at Click For Translation can help. Chat with us for a quote, or call 1-800-230-7918 and tell us what you need translated.
