Skip Navigation
Digest of Education Statistics
2002 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 57. Enrollment in foreign language courses compared with enrollment in grades 9 to 12 in public secondary schools: Fall 1948 to fall 2000 [In thousands]

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |Percentage change
                          |  Fall   | Fall | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  | Fall  |_________________
         Language         |  1948   | 1960 | 1965  | 1968  | 1970  | 1974  | 1976  | 1982  | 1985  | 1990  | 1994  | 2000  |1976 to |1990 to
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |  1990  |   2000
__________________________|_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________
            1             |    2    |  3   |   4   |   5   |   6   |   7   |   8   |   9   |  10   |  11   |  12   |  13   |   14   |   15
__________________________|_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________
  Total enrollment,       |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
  grades 9 to 12 .........|\1\5,602 |8,589 |11,610 |12,718 |13,336 |14,103 |14,314 |12,405 |12,388 |11,338 |12,213 |13,514 |  -20.8 |   19.2
                          |_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________
 All foreign languages\2\ |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|   1,170 |2,522 | 3,659 | 3,890 | 3,779 | 3,295 | 3,174 | 2,910 | 4,029 | 4,257 | 5,002 | 5,898 |   34.1 |   38.6
Percent of all students ..|    20.9 | 29.4 |  31.5 |  30.6 |  28.3 |  23.3 |  22.2 |  23.3 |  32.2 |  37.5 |  41.0 |  43.6 |    --- |    ---
                          |=========|======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|========|========
 Modern foreign languages |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     741 |1,867 | 3,068 | 3,518 | 3,514 | 3,127 | 3,023 | 2,740 | 3,852 | 4,093 | 4,813 | 5,721 |   35.4 |   39.8
Percent of all students ..|    13.2 | 21.7 |  26.4 |  27.7 |  26.4 |  22.1 |  21.1 |  21.9 |  31.1 |  36.1 |  39.4 |  42.3 |    --- |    ---
                          |_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________
         Spanish          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     443 |  933 | 1,427 | 1,698 | 1,811 | 1,678 | 1,717 | 1,563 | 2,334 | 2,611 | 3,220 | 4,058 |   52.1 |   55.4
Percent of all students ..|     7.9 | 10.9 |  12.3 |  13.4 |  13.6 |  11.9 |  12.0 |  12.5 |  18.8 |  23.0 |  26.4 |  30.0 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
          French          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     254 |  744 | 1,251 | 1,328 | 1,231 |   978 |   888 |   858 | 1,134 | 1,089 | 1,106 | 1,075 |   22.6 |   -1.3
Percent of all students ..|     4.5 |  8.7 |  10.8 |  10.4 |   9.2 |   6.9 |   6.2 |   6.9 |   9.2 |   9.6 |   9.1 |   8.0 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
          German          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|      43 |  151 |   328 |   423 |   411 |   393 |   353 |   267 |   312 |   295 |   326 |   283 |  -16.2 |   -4.1
Percent of all students ..|     0.8 |  1.8 |   2.8 |   3.3 |   3.1 |   2.8 |   2.5 |   2.1 |   2.5 |   2.6 |   2.7 |   2.1 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
         Russian          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     --- |   10 |    27 |    24 |    20 |    15 |    11 |     6 |     6 |    16 |    16 |    11 |   46.6 |  -35.6
Percent of all students ..|     --- |  0.1 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.1 |   0.1 | (\3\) | (\3\) |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
         Italian          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     --- |   20 |    25 |    27 |    27 |    40 |    46 |    44 |    47 |    40 |    44 |    64 |  -11.4 |   58.7
Percent of all students ..|     --- |  0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.2 |   0.3 |   0.3 |   0.4 |   0.4 |   0.4 |   0.4 |   0.5 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
       Japanese\4\        |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     --- |  --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |    25 |    42 |    51 |    --- |  102.5
Percent of all students ..|     --- |  --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   --- |   0.2 |   0.3 |   0.4 |    --- |    ---
                          |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
   Other modern foreign   |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
       languages\5\       |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|       1 |    9 |     9 |    18 |    15 |    23 |     9 |     3 |    18 |    15 |    59 |   179 |   73.0 | 1102.3
Percent of all students ..|   (\3\) |  0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.2 |   0.1 | (\3\) |   0.1 |   0.1 |   0.5 |   1.3 |    --- |    ---
                          |=========|======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|=======|========|========
          Latin           |         |      |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |        |
Number enrolled ..........|     429 |  655 |   591 |   372 |   265 |   167 |   150 |   170 |   177 |   164 |   189 |   177 |    8.9 |    8.3
Percent of all students ..|     7.7 |  7.6 |   5.1 |   2.9 |   2.0 |   1.2 |   1.1 |   1.4 |   1.4 |   1.4 |   1.5 |   1.3 |    --- |    ---
__________________________|_________|______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|_______|________|________

---Not available.
\1\Estimated.
\2\Includes enrollment in ancient Greek (not shown separately). Fewer than 1,000 students were enrolled in this language in each of the years shown.
\3\Less than 0.05 percent.
\4\Until 1990, student enrollment in Japanese courses was included in the Other modern foreign languages category.
\5\Includes students enrolled in unspecified modern foreign languages. In 1978, a relatively large number of students were not identified by field of study. Since 1990, enrollment in Japanese courses is reported as a separate category.

NOTE: Allocation of ungraded students to secondary levels based on proportions derived from prior years. Percent change computed from unrounded numbers.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data survey; and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Foreign Language Enrollments in U.S. Public High Schools, 1890-2000. (This table was prepared April 2002.)


2002 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest