Languages of the United States

English is the de facto national language (language used in common practice) of the United States, with 82% of the population claiming it as a mother tongue, and some 96% claiming to speak it "well" or "very well".^[1] However, no official language is recognized by the whole federal government. On March 1, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that declared English to be the official language of the U.S.,^[2] but the order is limited to the executive branch.^[3] The Constitution of the United States does not set an official language.^[4] There have been several proposals to make English the de jure national language in amendments to immigration reform bills,^[5]^[6] but none of these bills have made a federal language. This means that, while the federal government uses English, there is no law that they have to. However, some states have adopted English as their official language.

On the other hand, a lot of other languages, like Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Dutch, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Hindi, Mandarin, Hebrew, Cantonese, Chinese, Hawaiian, Ukrainian, Navajo, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Portuguese, etc. are spoken in the United States as second languages.

By state

State	Language(s)
Alabama	English Spanish Tagalog Korean Chinese Cantonese German French
Alaska	Ahtna Alutiiq Dena'ina Cup'ig Deg Xinag English Eyak Gwich'in Haida Hän Holikachuk Inupiaq Koyukon Lower Tanana Middle Tanana St. Lawrence Island Yupik Tanacross Tlingit Tsimshian Unangax̂ Upper Kuskokwim Upper Tanana Yup'ik Wetał
Arizona	English Spanish
Arkansas	English
California	Spanish Chinese English Armenian Japanese Korean Arabic Hindi French Russian Persian Tagalog
Colorado	English Spanish German
Connecticut	English
Delaware	English
Florida	English Spanish French Portuguese Italian Arabic Chinese Polish Vietnamese Russian Tagalog
Georgia	English Ibo Kru Yoruba French Korean Spanish Chinese Gujarati Vietnamese Hindi
Hawaii	English Hawaiian
Idaho	English Spanish
Illinois	English Spanish Polish Chinese Tagalog German Korean Arabic Urdu Russian Italian Gujarati Greek Hindi
Puerto Rico	English Spanish

Languages Of The United States Media

ANSI "United States" keyboard layout
Percentage of Americans aged 5+ speaking English at home in each Public Usage Microdata Area (PUMA) of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico according to the 2016–2021 five-year American Community Survey
A trash can in Seattle labeled in four languages: English, Chinese, Vietnamese (written as "ràc" instead of "rác"), and Spanish. Basura also exists as a loanword in Tagalog, spoken in the city.
Distribution of English-speaking households in the United States in 2000.
Spanish language distribution in the United States.
Location of state of ‹New Mexico in United States› in the United States
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
French language distribution in the United States.
Cajun language distribution in the United States.