The number of children ages 5–17 who spoke a language other than English at home more than doubled between 1979 and 2005.

Between 1979 and 2005, the number of school-age children (ages 5–17) who spoke a language other than English at home increased from 3.8 million to 10.6 million, or from 9 to 20 percent of the population in this age range (see table 6-1). An increase is also evident during the more recent period of 2000 to 2005 (18 to 20 percent). Among school-age children who spoke a language other than English at home, the total number of children who spoke English with difficulty increased from 1.3 million (or 3 percent of all 5- to 17-year-olds) to 2.9 million (or 6 percent) between 1979 and 2000, and did not measurably change from 2000 to 2005. However, these children have continued to decrease over time as a proportion of those who spoke another language at home, from 34 percent in 1979 to 31 percent in 2000 to 27 percent in 2005.

In 2005, the majority of school-age children who spoke a language other than English at home spoke Spanish (see table 6-2). The next largest number of children speaking a language other than English at home spoke other Indo-European¹ languages, followed by Asian/Pacific Islander² languages and then other languages. Those who spoke Spanish or an Asian/Pacific Islander language at home were more likely to speak English with difficulty (28 percent for both) than were those who spoke other Indo-European languages (21 percent) or other languages at home (19 percent).

The percentages of school-age children who spoke a non-English language at home varied by race/ethnicity, citizenship, and poverty status in 2005. Among school-age children, relatively more Hispanic children spoke a language other than English at home (69 percent), followed by Asians (64 percent), then Pacific Islanders (31 percent), American Indians/Alaska Natives (17 percent), persons of more than one race (9 percent), Whites (6 percent), and Blacks (5 percent). The percentage of non-U.S. citizens who spoke a language other than English at home (90 percent) was higher than the percentages of naturalized U.S. citizens (64 percent) and U.S.-born citizens (16 percent) who did so. Higher percentages of poor (30 percent) and near-poor (29 percent) 5- to 17-year-olds spoke a non-English language at home than did nonpoor 5- to 17-year-olds (14 percent).

¹ An Indo-European language other than Spanish (e.g., French, German, Portuguese, etc.). (back to text)

² Any native language spoken by Asians or Pacific Islanders, which linguists classify variously as Sino-Tibetan, Austroasiatic, or Austronesian languages. (back to text)