See America's Most Spoken Languages By State (After English and Spanish)

America's reputation for being a melting pot of cultures means it is also a melting pot of languages.

English and Spanish dominate when it comes to languages spoken by those living in the United States. A majority of Americans speak English, with 77% speaking the language at home, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Another 13.9% speak Spanish at home, making it the second-most spoken language in the country.

But what other languages are predominant in the country after English and Spanish? That depends on which state you live in, with factors like immigration and Native American culture each influencing the history of different states.

So what states are dominated by which spoken languages after English and Spanish, and which states have popular languages that are uniquely their own? See the results in the map below.

Chinese dominates the coasts

According to 2020-2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau compiled by Visual Capitalist, the Chinese languages of Mandarin and Cantonese are the most popular languages in America after English and Spanish in 13 states. 

All three West Coast states of Washington, Oregon, and California have one of these as their most spoken languages after English and Spanish. Chinese also leads in East Coast states as well. Northern states including New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania made this list, as well as Southern states like North Carolina and Georgia, showing the reach of Chinese across the country.

Chinese’s popularity could be a reflection of where recent Chinese immigrants have settled after arriving in the United States. Roughly half of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. lived in either California or New York from 2019 to 2023, according to the Migration Policy Institute, with 32% of Chinese immigrants living in California, mainly in the Bay Area, while 18% lived in New York.

German still has a hold on American households

Around 40 to 60 million Americans claim German roots, making Germany the country with the largest group of Americans who claim to have heritage from it. Yes, that means there are even more people who claim to be German in the U.S. than who claim to be Irish or Italian descendants.

Despite the fact that the largest wave of German immigrants to arrive in the U.S. was concentrated in the second half of the 19th century, the language continues to prevail in homes across the United States. It's the most spoken language in seven states after English and Spanish, including Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming, as well as Iowa, Kentucky, and South Carolina.

Other languages that are still spoken

While 20 states either have a large group of Chinese or German speakers, many other languages are also frequently spoken in homes across certain states.

Four states reflect a lack of immigration in their dominant languages, holding on to languages that were predominant in North America before mass immigration. Navajo, for example, is the third-most spoken language in homes in Arizona and New Mexico, while many residents of South Dakota and Alaska speak other Native languages.

Vietnamese is claimed by five states as their third-most popular language, and is predominantly spoken in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mississippi. Four states—Michigan, West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee—have large Arabic-speaking populations.

Meanwhile, some states are language islands, serving as the only states in the United States where a particular language is dominant after English and Spanish. Alabama is the only state that is most popular with Korean speakers, while Nevada has a large Tagalog population.

The upper Midwest, meanwhile, has three neighboring states that have unique languages in third place in the rankings of most frequently spoken languages there. Minnesota's most popular third language is Somali, Wisconsin is the only state with Hmong as its third-most popular language, and Illinois has a large Polish-speaking population.

Just how popular are English and Spanish?

It's estimated that there are 350 and 430 different languages spoken in the United States, which gives it the distinction of being one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world, according to Translators Without Borders.

Despite that, the country is dominated by English, with Spanish coming in second place. The U.S. Census Bureau states that almost 322 million Americans are over the age of 5. Of those, roughly 248 million speak English at home predominantly, while another 45 million speak Spanish at home. That means around 91% of the country speaks one of those two languages, with only 9% speaking something else.

Only three states don't list Spanish as the second-most popular language in their state. Maine, which borders the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec, counts French as the second-most popular language. Ilocano, which is popular in the Philippines, is the second-most spoken language in Hawaii, and Native languages are the second-most commonly spoken languages in Alaska.

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