Census Data Documents African Language Use in the United States

Census_Bureau_seal.svgThe United States Census Bureau has released data showing that at least 350 languages other than English are spoken at home by people living in the United States. Some 60 million Americans over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home. This is about one fifth of all Americans.

It will come as no surprise that the most common language other than English is Spanish. More than 37 million Americans speak Spanish at home. This is more than 61 percent of all Americans who speak a language other than English at home.

Some 894,499 Americans speak an African language at home. More than 322,000 Americans speak the West African languages of Kru, Ibo, or Yoruba. Many of these Americans are of Nigerian descent. About 122,000 American speak the Cushite language. Many of the Cushite speakers are immigrants from Ethiopia or Somalia. There are 88,685 Swahili speakers in the United States. Swahili is spoken in nations of southeast Africa such as Kenya, Mozambique, and Uganda.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.

Higher Education Gifts or Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

In Memoriam: Nathan Howard Cook, 1939-2024

Dr. Cook was a longtime faculty member and administrator at Lincoln University of Missouri. A full professor of biology, he held several leadership roles including vice president for academic affairs.

Featured Jobs