Most commonly spoken languages in the US

[unclevlad]

From Wikipedia, if you're wondering which to consider for your character...

 

Quote

Based on annual data from the American Community Survey, the United States Census Bureau regularly publishes information on the most common languages spoken at home.

 

English – 245 million (78.5%)
Spanish – 41.3 million (13.2%)
Chinese (including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and all other varieties) – 3.40 million (1.1%)
Tagalog (including Filipino) – 1.72 million (0.5%)
Vietnamese – 1.52 million (0.5%)
Arabic – 1.39 million
French – 1.18 million
Korean – 1.07 million
Russian – 1.04 million
Portuguese – 937 thousand
Haitian Creole – 895 thousand
Hindi – 865 thousand
German – 857 thousand
Polish – 533 thousand
Italian – 513 thousand
Urdu – 508 thousand
Persian (including Farsi, Dari and Tajik) – 472 thousand
Telugu – 460 thousand
Japanese – 455 thousand

 

This does say "spoken at home" and not those picked up as a second language, so it may reflect immigration over the last 40-odd years more than anything.  Still interesting that, say, French and German are down so low.

[Rich McGee]

33 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

This does say "spoken at home" and not those picked up as a second language

Same source say 21.6% of US households are multilingual, which is about 68 million people altogether.  I've seen other studies that indicate multilingualism is much more common in multi-generational households, particularly ones that include at least one first-generation immigrant.  Not exactly surprising, the older folks help keep the second (or third, fourth, etc.) language alive for the youngsters.

[Grailknight]

French and German being low doesn't surprise me. The last immigration waves from Europe were all done in the early 20th century. Even if they came at the tail end of WW II, we're into the third generation for those groups. Europeans tend to not cling as tightly to their native language and America of the 50's and 60's placed more pressure on immigrants to fit in.

[unclevlad]

What surprised me was that Mandarin is taught fairly commonly at least in private schools, when I look at specific schools that maybe fit, while working out languages, background skills, that sort of thing.  From memory only...I'd say Spanish is the most common, which isn't surprising.  Mandarin might be a tad more common than French, which is probably 3rd.  Latin...occasional.  German...infrequent.  Japanese, also infrequent, and might be focused on areas where there's more Japanese residents, I don't recall for sure.  Again...private schools' order.

 

When you get to college, of course, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic all become plausible, given a large public university at least.  

[Khymeria]

This is just about the breakdown I would have thought as least as most spoken to least spoken. I wouldn't have known the numbers but common and uncommon is pretty easy to imagine if you have been around the country a little.