World Language Map

Languages spoken in the United States

155 living languages are mapped in the United States. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is English (96% of the population). They belong to 27 language families, the largest being Indo-European (21 languages). 5 are language isolates, with no known relatives.

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of the United States at a glance

  • 155living languages
  • 27language families
  • 342 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 10with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in the United States. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

The 40 most widely spoken languages in the United States

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
EnglishIndo-European96%328,284,480Not endangered
SpanishIndo-European9.6%32,828,448Not endangered
Mandarin ChineseSino-Tibetan0.7%2,359,545Not endangered
FrenchIndo-European0.6%1,914,993Not endangered
GermanIndo-European0.5%1,607,226Not endangered
FilipinoAustronesian0.4%1,436,245Not endangered
ItalianIndo-European0.3%1,162,674Not endangered
VietnameseAustroasiatic0.3%1,162,674Not endangered
KoreanKoreanic0.3%1,025,889Not endangered
RussianIndo-European0.2%820,711Not endangered
AchumawiPalaihnihanNearly extinct
Afro-Seminole CreoleIndo-EuropeanMoribund
AhtenaAthabaskan-Eyak-TlingitNearly extinct
AlabamaMuskogeanShifting
AleutEskimo-AleutShifting
ArapahoAlgicMoribund
Archaic AngloromaniIndo-EuropeanNot endangered
ArikaraCaddoanNearly extinct
AssiniboineSiouanShifting
Belize Kriol EnglishIndo-EuropeanShifting
CaddoCaddoanNearly extinct
CahuillaUto-AztecanMoribund
Cajonos ZapotecOtomangueanNot endangered
CayugaIroquoianMoribund
Central Alaskan YupikEskimo-AleutShifting
Central OjibwaAlgicShifting
Central Siberian YupikEskimo-AleutShifting
Central Sierra MiwokMiwok-CostanoanMoribund
CherokeeIroquoianShifting
CheyenneAlgicShifting
ChickasawMuskogeanShifting
ChippewaAlgicShifting
ChoctawMuskogeanThreatened
CocopaCochimi-YumanShifting
Coeur d'AleneSalishanNearly extinct
Columbia-WenatchiSalishanNearly extinct
ComancheUto-AztecanMoribund
Copala TriquiOtomangueanThreatened
CreekMuskogeanMoribund
CrowSiouanShifting

Read more: where is English spoken?

Language families in the United States

All 155 languages in the United States, A to Z

About these numbers

The list of languages in the United States comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in the United States

How many languages are spoken in the United States?

155 living languages are mapped in the United States, from 27 families, plus 5 language isolates. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in the United States?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, English is spoken by 96% of the population, about 328,284,480 people, followed by Spanish (9.6%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in the United States?

Indo-European (21 languages), Algic (17 languages), Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit (16 languages), Uto-Aztecan (12 languages) and Otomanguean (10 languages), and 22 more.

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