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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.

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

  • Seattle trash lese rac basura 200511.jpg

    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.

  • English USC2000 PHS.svg

    Distribution of English-speaking households in the United States in 2000.

  • Spanish USC2000 PHS.svg

    Spanish language distribution in the United States.

  • New Mexico in United States.svg

    The State of New Mexico.

  • French USC2000 PHS.svg

    French language distribution in the United States.

  • Cajun USC2000 PHS.svg

    Cajun language distribution in the United States.

References

  1. ↑ Summary Tables on Language Use and English Ability: 2000 (PHC-T-20), U.S. Census Bureau, retrieved 2008-02-22
  2. ↑ McGraw, Meredith (28 February 2025). "Trump to Sign Executive Order Making English Official U.S. Language". The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-executive-order-english-official-language-5c0b7665. Retrieved 28 February 2025. 
  3. ↑ "Government information: executive orders". University of Massachusetts at Amherst. February 10, 2025. Retrieved March 5, 2025.
  4. ↑ "FYI: English isn't the official language of the United States". CNN. May 20, 2018.
  5. ↑ U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 2nd Session, United States Senate, retrieved 2008-02-22
  6. ↑ "Senate Amendment 1151 to Senate Bill 1348, Immigration Act of 2007". project Vote Smart. Archived from the original on 2011-05-21. Retrieved 2008-07-04..
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