Spanish Is First Most Spoken Foreign Language in U.S, According to Census

A new U.S. Census has revealed that since 1980 the number of Spanish-speaking residents in the U.S. has grown significantly and the number of citizens who speak a foreign language at home has tripled.

The census data, which was released Aug. 6, shows that nearly 38 million U.S. residents speak Spanish at home. In 1980, that number stood at 11 million. It also reported that Spanish-speakers make up around two-thirds of the nearly 61 million people who speak a language other than English at home.

At the same time, proficiency in English among Spanish-speakers has also slightly risen--5.6 percent of this group say that they speak English "less than very well," compared to 5.7 percent who could not speak the language from 2005 to 2011.

"The study provides evidence of the growing role of languages other than English in the national fabric," said Camille Ryan, a U.S. Census statistician and the report's author, in a statement. "Yet, at the same time that more people are speaking languages other than English at home, the percentage of people speaking English proficiently has remained steady."

The third most-spoken language is Chinese, which is used by 2.9 million citizens. Other common foreign languages are Tagalog (1.6 million), Vietnamese (1.4 million), French (1.3 million), German (1.1 million), and Korean (1.1 million).

The number of people who use another language other than English at home varies across the country. The state with the highest percentage of people who speak another language at home is California, with 44 percent, while West Virginia has the lowest, with 2 percent. Laredo, Texas, is the metro area with the highest percentage, with 92 percent.

For more details, check out the Census interactive map here.