The percentage of people speaking a language other than English at home in America has reached an all-time high of 61.8 million, according to a group that advocates for low immigration levels, including a 22 percent increase in Arabic speakers.
The Center for Immigration Studies compiled data from the a 2013 U.S. Census survey and came to the conclusion that one in five U.S. residents over the age of 4 does not speak English at home.
The CIS analysis found the bulk of the increase in foreign language were among Spanish speakers, followed by Chinese and Arabic. The report pointed to “past policy decisions” that permitted an increase in legal immigration and a tolerance of illegal immigration.
Since 2010, the number people speaking a foreign language at home grew by 2.2 million, according to the data, derived by the Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey.
Among those, Spanish speakers rose to 1.4 million, a 4 percent growth from 2010, followed by Chinese, up 220,000 representing an 8 percent growth, and Arabic, up by 188,000 people, a 22 percent growth.
Other languages that experienced significant growth among U.S. residents include Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, which is up by 50,000 or 13 percent.
The CIS language report follows a previous analysis by the organization that showed immigration at record high of 41.3 million, with many of the newcomers hailing from India, Guatemala, Jamaica, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.
The latest report listed the languages other than English spoken by more than a million people as follows:
• Spanish – 38.4 million
• Chinese – 3 million
• Tagalog – 1.6 million
• Vietnamese – 1.4 million
• French – 1.3 million
• Korean – 1.1 million
• Arabic – 1.1 million
