In households where one or more people spoke a language other than English, the household language assigned to all household members was the non- English language spoken by the first person with a non-English language. This assignment scheme ranked household members in the following order: householder, spouse, parent, sibling, child, grandchild, other relative, stepchild, unmarried partner, housemate or roommate, and other nonrelatives. Therefore, a person who spoke only English may have had a non-English household language assigned during tabulations by household language.

Government agencies use information on language spoken at home for their programs that serve the needs of the foreign-born and specifically those who have difficulty with English. Under the Voting Rights Act, language is needed to meet statutory requirements for making voting materials available in minority languages. The Census Bureau is directed, using data about language spoken at home and the ability to speak English, to identify minority groups that speak a language other than English and to assess their English-speaking ability. The U.S. Department of Education uses these data to prepare a report to Congress on the social and economic status of children served by different local school districts.

Government agencies use information on language spoken at home for their programs that serve the needs of the foreign-born and specifically those who have difficulty with English. Under the Voting Rights Act, language is needed to meet statutory requirements for making voting materials available in minority languages. The Census Bureau is directed, using data about language spoken at home and the ability to speak English, to identify minority groups that speak a language other than English and to assess their English-speaking ability. The U.S. Department of Education uses these data to prepare a report to Congress on the social and economic status of children served by different local school districts. State and local agencies concerned with aging develop health care and other services tailored to the language and cultural diversity of the elderly under the Older Americans Act.

Question/Concept History

The Language Spoken At Home Questions have changed only once since ACS began. Examples of languages were listed immediately followed the question “What is this language?” in the 1996-1998 questionnaire. Starting in 1999, the list of languages was moved to below the write-in box. In 2016, the code list for languages was standardized to match the International Statistical Organization’s standard ISO-639-3.

Limitation of the Data

Beginning in 2006, the population in group quarters (GQ) was included in the ACS. Some types of GQ populations may have language spoken at home distributions that are different from the household population. The inclusion of the GQ population could therefore have a noticeable impact on the language spoken at home distribution. This is particularly true for areas with a substantial GQ population.

The language question is about current use of a non-English language, not about ability to speak another language or the use of such a language in the past. People who speak a language other than English outside of the home are not reported as speaking a language other than English. Similarly, people whose mother tongue is a non-English language but who do not currently use the language at home do not report the language. Some people who speak a language other than English at home may have first learned that language in school. These people are expected to indicate speaking English "Very well."

Comparability

Caution should be taken when comparing language data from the ACS and 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses across time. Methodological changes to data collection in 2013 may have affected language data. Users should be aware of these changes when comparing data from 2013 or after to data from before 2013, or when using multi-year ACS data containing data from before and after 2013. For more information on comparability of language data, see the user note, "2013 Language Estimates."

The full Language Code List is found within the 2021 ACS Code List. Go to http://www.census.gov and enter "ACS Code Lists, Definitions, and Accuracy" in the search box