The U.S. Census Bureau reports that between 1980 and 2019, the number of people living in the United States who speak a language other than English at home have tripled, with almost 68 million or about 1 in 5 speaking a second language at home.
IMAGE CREDIT: VOICE OF AMERICA NEWS RELEASESpanish is by far the most popular second language in the U.S. today, with more than 41 million people or 12 times more than the other most common second languages. It is followed in the top 5 by the number of U.S. residents who speak Tagalog, Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese.
According to World Economic Forum data, Tagalog—with 1.7 million speakers—is the third most commonly spoken language in American households after English and Spanish. The other most common non-English languages spoken in U.S. households are Cantonese and Mandarin, Vietnamese, Arabic, and French.
Read “America's Most Popular 2nd Languages Might Surprise You” in the Voice of America website now! Read “Besides English and Spanish, which language do you think is the most commonly spoken in the U.S.?” in the World Economic Forum website now!
