Because Americans’ multilingualism has implications not only for the nation’s ability to compete in a global marketplace but also for its capacity to develop and execute effective foreign policy, the extent to which Americans actually gain fluency in multiple languages is an extremely important question. Such multilingualism is the focus of this indicator, which also looks at where proficiency in languages other than English was acquired. (For data concerning trends in foreign-language course-taking at these levels, see Indicator I-7, Language Course Enrollment in Public High Schools, and Indicator II-7, Language Course-Taking at the Postsecondary Level.)

In January of 2006, President Bush launched the National Security Language Initiative, which is designed to “dramatically increase the number of Americans learning critical need foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese [Mandarin], Russian, Hindi, Persian, and others through new and expanded programs from kindergarten through university and into the workforce.”1 For all the present concern about what is perceived as a national foreign-language deficit, however, existing data on multilingualism are of limited use in gauging the true extent of the country’s achieved fluency in multiple languages. This is true for several reasons. First, such data are based on self-report—currently no system objectively measures and registers individuals’ multilingual capabilities. Second, the only national trend data that exist, those drawn from the decennial census, reflect a concern with immigrants’ ability to acquire English language skills and thus describe only non-English use in the home. These data do not capture those individuals who have gained their proficiency in non-English language(s) via formal instruction; nor do they account for those who may have learned a non-English language in their childhood home (and still speak it fluently) but who do not use that language in their own homes as adults. Moreover, census data do not measure the extent of individuals’ proficiency in their non-English “home” language. Finally, the census and other current data collection efforts in this area are structured to measure Americans’ proficiency in just one language other than English and thus do not reveal how many people have facility in three or more languages. Although these data cannot measure the full extent of the nation’s multilingualism, they are the best available and are presented below.

Figure V-5a displays the relevant census data from 1980 to 2000. While a language question has appeared on almost every decennial census since 1870, only since 1980 have respondents been asked not only if they speak a language other than English but also how proficient they are in English. Between 1980 and 2000, the percentage of Americans age 18 or over who were bilingual, defined here as individuals who 1) report speaking a non-English language at home and 2) describe themselves as speaking English “well” or “very well,” rose from 9.2% to 13.1%.

Figure V-5a, Full Size Supporting Data

In 2000, the majority of bilingual Americans age 18 or older (52%) spoke Spanish or Spanish Creole in addition to English (Figure V-5b). Just over a quarter spoke another Indo-European language, and 16% spoke an Asian or Pacific Island language. Included among the remaining 5% of bilingual Americans whose second language is labeled “Other” were those individuals who spoke indigenous languages of North, Central, and South America; Semitic languages (Arabic and Hebrew); and languages of Africa. The figure also highlights the small percentages of bilingual Americans who were fluent in certain of the languages identified as “critical need” under the new federal initiative.

Figure V-5b, Full Size Supporting Data

Data from the 2000 General Social Survey (GSS), administered by the National Opinion Research Center, provide a somewhat different estimate of the extent of bilingualism in the United States. The focus of the GSS was respondents’ proficiency in a non-English language, and thus it did not assess foreign-language speakers’ proficiency in English. An advantage of GSS data, however, is that they capture those individuals who learned a non-English language outside the home, as well as those who learned the language at home as children but who, while still fluent in the non-English language, spoke only English in their own homes.

According to GSS data from the year 2000 (Figure V-5c), approximately 16.3% of the American adult population was bilingual (a bilingual individual is defined here as speaking English and another language, the latter either “well” or “very well”). Only 2.8% of all American adults developed their non-English competence through school-based instruction. The vast majority of bilingual adults (83%) acquired their second language at home.

Figure V-5c, Full Size Supporting Data

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