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Digest of Education Statistics
2007 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 53. Enrollment in foreign language courses compared with enrollment in grades 9 through 12 in public secondary schools: Selected years, fall 1948 through fall 2000

[Number in thousands]
Language Fall 1948 Fall 1960 Fall 1965 Fall 1968 Fall 1970 Fall 1974 Fall 1976 Fall 1982 Fall 1985 Fall 1990 Fall 1994 Fall 2000 Percent change in enrollment
1976
to
1990
1990
to
2000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Total enrollment, grades 9 to 12 5,602 1  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 languages2                               
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 # # 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
                               
Japanese3                               
Number enrolled   25 42 51 102.5
Percent of all students   0.2 0.3 0.4
                               
Other modern foreign languages4                               
Number enrolled 1   9 9 18 15 23 9 3 18 15 59 179 73.0 1,102.3
Percent of all students #   0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 # 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.
# Rounds to zero.
† Not applicable.
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 Until 1990, student enrollment in Japanese courses was included in the Other modern foreign languages category.
4 Includes students enrolled in unspecified modern foreign languages. Since 1990, enrollment in Japanese courses is reported as a separate category.
NOTE: Percent change computed from unrounded numbers.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Com­mon Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary/Secondary Education," 1982 through 2000. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Foreign Language Enrollments in U.S. Public Secondary Schools, Fall 2000. (This table was prepared April 2002.)

2007 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest