1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2007 | Percent change 1980-2007 | |
Population 5 years and over | 210,247,455 | 230,445,777 | 262,375,152 | 280,950,438 | 33.6 |
Spoke only English at home | 187,187,415 | 198,600,798 | 215,423,557 | 225,505,953 | 20.5 |
Spoke a language other than English at home1 | 23,060,040 | 31,844,979 | 46,951,595 | 55,444,485 | 140.4 |
Spoke a language other than English at home1,2 | 23,060,040 | 31,844,979 | 46,951,595 | 55,444,485 | 140.4 |
Spanish or Spanish Creole | 11,116,194 | 17,345,064 | 28,101,052 | 34,547,077 | 210.8 |
French (incl. Patios, Cajun, Creole) | 1,550,751 | 1,930,404 | 2,097,206 | 1,984,824 | 28.0 |
Italian | 1,618,344 | 1,308,648 | 1,008,370 | 798,801 | -50.6 |
Portuguese or Portuguese Creole | 351,875 | 430,610 | 564,630 | 687,126 | 95.3 |
German | 1,586,593 | 1,547,987 | 1,383,442 | 1,104,354 | -30.4 |
Yiddish | 315,953 | 213,064 | 178,945 | 158,991 | -49.7 |
Greek | 401,443 | 388,260 | 365,436 | 329,825 | -17.8 |
Russian | 173,226 | 241,798 | 706,242 | 851,174 | 391.4 |
Polish | 820,647 | 723,483 | 667,414 | 638,059 | -22.2 |
Serbo-Croatian | 150,255 | 70,964 | 233,865 | 276,550 | 84.1 |
Armenian | 100,634 | 149,694 | 202,708 | 221,865 | 120.5 |
Persian | 106,992 | 201,865 | 312,085 | 349,686 | 226.8 |
Chinese | 630,806 | 1,319,462 | 2,022,143 | 2,464,572 | 290.7 |
Japanese | 336,318 | 427,657 | 477,997 | 458,717 | 36.4 |
Korean | 266,280 | 626,478 | 894,063 | 1,062,337 | 299.0 |
Vietnamese | 197,588 | 507,069 | 1,009,627 | 1,207,004 | 510.9 |
Tagalog | 474,150 | 843,251 | 1,224,241 | 1,480,429 | 212.2 |
1 The languages highlighted in this table are the languages where data were available for the four time periods: 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2007.
2 The total does not match the sum of the 17 languages listed in this table because the total includes all the other languages that are not highlighted here.
3 This number added to or subtracted from the estimate yields the 90-percent confidence interval. For more information on ACS see http://www.census.gov/acs/www/
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 1980 and 1990 Census, Census 2000, and the 2007 American Community Survey. See http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/appendix.html.