Multilingual America

American Demographics, July 1, 2002

Byline: WILLIAM H. FREY

America's identity as a melting pot now extends beyond multiple races and cultures to also include numerous languages. Ours is an increasingly multilingual nation, due to a new wave of immigration.

The number of individuals who speak a language other than English at home is on the rise. This population is also on the move: No longer restricted to traditional port-of-entry cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, foreign-language speakers are now sprouting up in certain Southeastern and Western states.

For the first time, thanks to Census 2000 long-form data, we are able to identify these new locations where residents who speak a foreign language are making their presence felt. Although relatively small, this population is beginning to constitute a critical mass in many communities - reason alone for businesses seeking new markets to take note.

Nationally, Americans age 5 and older who speak a language other than English at home grew 47 percent in the past decade. According to Census 2000, this group now accounts for slightly less than 1 in 5 Americans (17.9 percent). About three-fifths of this group speak Spanish at home (59.9 percent), another fifth speaks another Indo-European language (21.3 percent) and almost 15 percent speak an Asian language.

Overall, foreign-language speakers grew by about 15 million during the 1990s, with new Spanish speakers contributing about 11 million people and new Asian speakers almost 2.5 million. Continued immigration from Latin America and Asia has increased the number of people who speak languages native to those regions.

Foreign-Language Havens

These foreign-language speakers are concentrated in 10 states, each where 20 percent or more of the residents speak a language other than English at home. Led by California (40 percent), this group includes several other Western states as well as New York, New Jersey, Florida and Rhode Island. (See maps, page 22.) The concentration is even more evident when one looks at individual metropolitan areas. (See tables, page 23.)

In six metros, including Miami and Laredo, Texas, those who speak only English at home are in the minority. In five Mexican border towns in this category, Spanish accounts for more than 96 percent of non-English languages spoken.

Other areas where more than one-third of the population speaks a language other than English at home include Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco, New York and San Diego.

By far, the two largest metros that house the most foreign-language-speakers are Los Angeles and New York, with more than 7 million and 6 million foreign-language speakers, respectively. Together, these two gateways increased their foreign-language speaking populations by 3.5 million between 1990 and 2000, accounting for 24 percent of the country's total gain.

Eight metropolitan areas with the largest populations that speak a foreign language accounted for almost half (46 percent) of the nation's total gain. Others include Phoenix, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle and Denver - cities that became secondary magnets for new immigrant groups during the 1990s.

Multilingual Expansion

Although many immigrant gateway metros still hold the lion's share of inhabitants who speak a foreign language, the 1990s was a decade of extensive redistribution of foreign-born residents and hence, of foreign-language speakers. Areas that had little prior familiarity with Spanish-speaking residents or those who speak an Asian language gained exposure to cultural as well as linguistic differences in their communities.

States that now have the fastest growing non-English-speaking populations are not typically those with the highest percentages of such people. (See maps, page 22.) Most are Southeastern and Western states that began to attract new immigrants, often in response to an increased demand for services due to an influx of migrants from other states.

In the Southeast, this includes Georgia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia; in the West, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Colorado. Several interior states with small foreign-born populations, such as Nebraska, are also attracting new non-English-speaking residents to take a variety of service jobs.

Similar geographic patterns are evident in metropolitan areas with the fastest growth of foreign-language-speakers. For example, Fayetteville, Ark., increased its non-English speaking population by a whopping 368 percent during the 1990s. Six of the seven fastest growing areas (Las Vegas being the exception) are in the South, including the North Carolina metros of Hickory, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, Charlotte and Greensboro.

Although in many of these enclaves foreign-language speakers account for only a small percentage of the area's total population, this is not the case for all. Las Vegas, for example, increased its share of residents who speak a foreign language to 24 percent, from 13 percent, between 1990 and 2000. Similar increases can be seen for Orlando and Naples, Fla.; Phoenix and Dallas. Significant gains also occurred in small Iowa cities, such as Sioux City, Waterloo and Des Moines.