The most commonly used language in the United States is English (specifically American English), which is the national language. A March 2025 executive order declared English the official language of the United States;[a] despite some previous attempts, no legislation has been passed by the U.S. Congress to make English the official language.[2][1] In addition, 32 U.S. states out of 50 and all five U.S. territories have declared English as an official language, with three states and most territories having adopted English plus one or more other official languages. Accommodations for non-English-language speakers are sometimes made under various federal, state, and local laws. The majority of the U.S. population (78%) speaks only English at home as of 2023, according to the American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau.[7] The remainder of the population speaks many other languages at home, most notably Spanish (13.4% of the population), Chinese (around 1%) and other Asian languages such as Tagalog and Vietnamese, and the Indigenous languages of Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. In addition, many residents of the U.S. unincorporated territories speak their own native languages or (in Puerto Rico) Spanish. Over the course of its history, many languages have been brought into what became the United States from Europe, Africa, Asia, other parts of the Americas, and Oceania. Some of these languages have developed into dialects and dialect families (examples include African-American English, Pennsylvania Dutch, and Gullah), creole languages (such as Louisiana Creole), and pidgin languages. American Sign Language (ASL) and Interlingua, an international auxiliary language, were created in the United States.
The majority of foreign language speakers in the U.S. are bilingual or multilingual, and they commonly speak English. Although 22% of U.S. residents report that they speak a language other than English at home, only 8.4% of these same residents speak English less than "very well".[8][9] Approximately 430 languages are spoken or signed by the population, of which 177 are indigenous to the U.S. or its territories.[10]
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