Language diversity in America: what the newest Census data means for churches

The numbers

Those are the American Community Survey's 2024 estimates, the newest available. Spanish is by far the largest language, spoken at home by 44.9 million people. But 29.2 million people speak something else, which means about 4 in 10 Americans who speak another language at home speak neither English nor Spanish there.

Most of them also speak English well. The figure that matters most for a church is the second one: 28.9 million people tell the Census they speak English less than “very well.” For them, an English-only sermon is at best hard work and at worst noise.

The top 20 languages spoken at home

After Spanish come Chinese (3.7 million), Tagalog (1.9 million), Vietnamese (1.6 million) and Arabic (1.5 million). Korean, Portuguese, Hindi, Haitian Creole and Russian each have about a million speakers, close enough that their exact order is within the survey's margin of error.

Some of the biggest communities hide inside Census groups: the group that includes Yoruba, Twi and Igbo has 773,000 speakers, and the one that includes Amharic and Somali has 639,000. Where those communities live is uneven, which is why we also ranked the most multilingual metro areas and mapped the top language after Spanish in every state.

Who needs translation most

The share with limited English varies widely by language. Among the twelve biggest languages it runs from 15% of German speakers to 57% of Vietnamese speakers:

Many of the communities at the top of this list, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Haitian, Russian-speaking and Spanish-speaking, have their own churches and also fill the pews of English-speaking ones. Often the same family sits in both worlds: parents who pray in their first language, children who grew up in English.

How fast it has grown

The number has roughly tripled since 1980. The 1980 and 2019 figures come from the Census Bureau's own summary of that history; 2024 is the newest survey year.

What it means for churches

A few facts from the research on American congregations:

• Immigrants are mostly Christian. In Pew Research Center's 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study, 58% of first-generation immigrants identified as Christian (the survey was offered in English and Spanish only).
• They are already in the pews. In the 2020 Faith Communities Today study, first-generation immigrants made up 13% of regular participants in the average U.S. congregation.
• Spanish ministry is common, and growing. In the National Congregations Study, 10% of congregations held Spanish or bilingual services in 2018–19, up from 6% in 2006–07, and those congregations held about one in five worshipers. Among Catholic parishes it was 44%.
• Even Spanish speakers split by language. Pew found in 2025 that 38% of Hispanic Catholics usually attend Mass in Spanish, about a quarter in English, and 23% go to both.
• Congregations are more mixed than they were. The National Congregations Study found 16% of congregations multiracial in 2018–19, up from 6% in 1998.

For many churches that adds up to a familiar picture: a few families who follow English with effort, a few who can't follow it at all, and children who would rather not translate for their parents every Sunday.

Where to go from here

1. Find out who is near you. Our metro ranking and state map are a start; the Census Bureau's table S1601 goes down to your ZIP code.
2. Ask who is already there. Which language would each person choose for the sermon? Ask the families who visited once, too.
3. Compare the ways to translate. Interpreters, headset systems and AI each fit different churches. Our honest comparison and cost guide walk through the options.

ChurchTranslator.AI translates the sermon live into 98 languages, as audio and captions on each listener's own phone, with no app to install.

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table B16001: Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English (table-based summary file)
2. U.S. Census Bureau, “Census Bureau Releases New 2017–2021 American Community Survey Language Use Tables” (CB25-TPS.40), June 3, 2025
3. Dietrich & Hernandez, “Nearly 68 Million People Spoke a Language Other Than English at Home in 2019,” U.S. Census Bureau, December 6, 2022
4. Pew Research Center, “Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off” (2023–24 Religious Landscape Study), February 26, 2025
5. Thumma, “A Portrait of the 2020 Faith Communities Today Study,” Theology Today 78(3), 2021
6. Chaves, Roso, Holleman & Hawkins, Congregations in 21st Century America (National Congregations Study), Duke University, 2021
7. Dougherty, Chaves & Emerson, “Racial Diversity in U.S. Congregations, 1998–2019,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2020
8. Pew Research Center, “Profile of Hispanic Catholics in the U.S.,” June 16, 2025
9. CDC / National Center for Health Statistics, FastStats: Disabilities or Limitations (2025 National Health Interview Survey)