languages of the United States

The most commonly used language in the United States is English (specifically American English), which is the national language and de facto official language. While the U.S. Congress has never declared a statutory official language, the federal government primarily uses English and a 2025 executive order declared English official. In addition, 32 U.S. states out of 50 and all five U.S. territories have laws that recognize English as an official language, with three states and most territories having adopted English plus one or more other official languages. Overall, 430 languages are spoken or signed by the population, of which 177 are indigenous to the U.S. or its territories, and accommodations for non-English-language speakers are sometimes made under various federal, state, and local laws.

The majority of the U.S. population (77%) speaks only English at home as of 2024, according to the American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau. The second most common language by far is Spanish, spoken by 13.9% of the population, followed by Chinese, spoken by around 1% of the population. Other languages spoken by over a million residents are Tagalog, Vietnamese, Arabic, French, Korean, and Russian. Although some 22.3% of U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home, only 8.4% report that they speak English less than "very well".