The Second Most Common Language By State In The United States For 2026

Spanish is the second language in 48 of 51 states, but the map below English and Spanish is where America gets interesting. See every state, every decade.

Written by

Chris Kolmar

HomeSnacks

Last updated

July 18, 2026

Every state answers this question twice, so we mapped the second most common language by state, then pulled the layer nobody maps: what comes after English and Spanish, decade by decade. Spanish holds the number-two spot in 48 of 51 states and DC, with 42,869,908 speakers nationwide, while the third-language map underneath it has quietly repainted itself since 2000.

Spanish is the second language in every state except Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine, where Native languages, Austronesian languages, and French hold the spot.
Vermont, French’s oldest holdout, is now a statistical coin flip, with Spanish ahead on the point estimate for the first time.
After English and Spanish, Chinese leads in 13 states, the most of any language.
German led that map in 19 states in 2000; today it leads in three.
More than 1 in 5 Americans, 22.3 percent, speak a language other than English at home.

The exceptions, the full table, and the decade-by-decade repaint are below.

Which states don’t have Spanish as their second language?

Just three: Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine. In Alaska, the Census’s Native languages group counts 24,996 home speakers against Spanish’s 22,437; in Hawaii, the Ilocano, Samoan, and Hawaiian group leads with 117,184; and in Maine, French still doubles Spanish, 30,737 to 13,107.

Vermont just left the club, sort of. Spanish counts 8,063 speakers there against French’s 7,398, but the gap is smaller than the survey’s margin of error, so call it a coin flip with Spanish ahead on the point estimate for the first time. Older lists still put Vermont in the French column; the newest data says the takeover is happening right now.

The three exceptions, and the one in progress.

AlaskaNative languages group: 24,996 home speakers vs Spanish’s 22,437the only state where Indigenous languages hold #2

HawaiiIlocano, Samoan, and Hawaiian group leads with 117,184 speakersSpanish isn’t even close

MaineFrench still doubles Spanish, 30,737 to 13,107the last French stronghold

VermontSpanish 8,063 vs French 7,398, inside the margin of errora coin flip, tipping for the first time

Source: Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B16001.

What language comes after English and Spanish?

Chinese, in 13 states, including California and New York. This is where the country actually varies. German holds seven, French five, Vietnamese five, and Arabic four, and then the map splinters into one-state stories: Korean in Alabama, Haitian in Florida, Polish in Illinois, Tagalog in Nevada, Hmong in Wisconsin, and the Census’s Somali group in Minnesota.

Those one-state stories are community history written in survey data. Dearborn made Arabic Michigan’s number three; Hmong refugee resettlement did the same for Wisconsin.

If you’ve seen a version of this map crowned by German, it isn’t wrong, it’s old. Those maps were built on earlier editions of the same Census table, and the decade section below shows exactly when the crown moved.

Map: the second most common language by state after English and Spanish, from the newest Census five-year data. Letters mark the six languages that lead in more than two states; hatching marks statistical ties.

ChineseGermanFrenchVietnameseArabicPortugueseOne-state stories & groupsStatistical tie

Source: Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B16001.

The second most common language by state: the full table

The table below shows every state plus DC: the second language and its speakers, the leader after English and Spanish, and the share who speak only English at home. States marked with an asterisk have a statistical tie for that third spot; sort the table however you want.

The second most common language by state, plus the leader after English and Spanish (Census ACS 2020-2024 5-year, table B16001; the Census’s own language rows, some of which are groups). * = statistical tie with the runner-up for that third spot. Click a header to sort.
State	#2 language	Speakers	After English & Spanish	Speakers	English-only
Alabama	Spanish	187,711	Korean*	11,347	94.0%
Alaska	Native languages group	24,996	Native languages group	24,996	84.9%
Arizona	Spanish	1,344,168	Navajo	75,037	74.3%
Arkansas	Spanish	176,128	Ilocano/Samoan/Hawaiian group	7,831	91.7%
California	Spanish	10,513,931	Chinese	1,291,832	55.6%
Colorado	Spanish	613,290	Chinese	25,066	83.8%
Connecticut	Spanish	439,949	Portuguese	46,176	76.6%
Delaware	Spanish	76,483	Chinese	7,909	84.9%
District of Columbia	Spanish	60,423	French*	10,192	80.9%
Florida	Spanish	4,801,213	Haitian	461,611	69.4%
Georgia	Spanish	890,264	Chinese	61,447	84.5%
Hawaii	Ilocano/Samoan/Hawaiian group	117,184	Ilocano/Samoan/Hawaiian group	117,184	75.3%
Idaho	Spanish	147,208	German*	4,761	89.0%
Illinois	Spanish	1,681,635	Polish	164,756	76.0%
Indiana	Spanish	353,025	Pennsylvania Dutch group*	35,784	89.7%
Iowa	Spanish	140,635	German*	10,026	90.9%
Kansas	Spanish	223,357	Vietnamese	12,367	87.9%
Kentucky	Spanish	146,717	German*	12,379	93.2%
Louisiana	Spanish	201,847	French	60,276	91.5%
Maine	French	30,737	French	30,737	94.0%
Maryland	Spanish	562,050	Chinese*	71,414	78.9%
Massachusetts	Spanish	646,141	Portuguese	228,351	74.9%
Michigan	Spanish	298,830	Arabic	172,609	89.6%
Minnesota	Spanish	227,636	Somali group	97,586	87.6%
Mississippi	Spanish	73,687	Vietnamese*	5,399	95.7%
Missouri	Spanish	169,451	Chinese*	21,123	93.3%
Montana	Spanish	15,285	German*	6,655	95.8%
Nebraska	Spanish	156,178	Vietnamese*	7,674	87.2%
Nevada	Spanish	600,083	Tagalog	89,719	70.5%
New Hampshire	Spanish	34,831	French	15,152	92.1%
New Jersey	Spanish	1,514,828	Chinese	129,959	66.9%
New Mexico	Spanish	491,462	Navajo	57,560	68.7%
New York	Spanish	2,772,893	Chinese	600,426	69.1%
North Carolina	Spanish	876,033	Chinese	40,402	86.5%
North Dakota	Spanish	16,618	German	4,445	93.3%
Ohio	Spanish	294,716	Pennsylvania Dutch group	62,928	92.0%
Oklahoma	Spanish	305,840	Vietnamese	15,905	88.5%
Oregon	Spanish	365,276	Chinese	30,483	84.8%
Pennsylvania	Spanish	686,810	Chinese	96,828	87.6%
Rhode Island	Spanish	141,693	Portuguese	30,524	76.9%
South Carolina	Spanish	262,999	German*	12,948	91.6%
South Dakota	Spanish	22,332	Native languages group	9,521	92.9%
Tennessee	Spanish	348,679	Arabic	33,139	91.4%
Texas	Spanish	7,932,949	Vietnamese	247,783	64.9%
Utah	Spanish	345,046	Chinese*	16,788	84.1%
Vermont	Spanish	8,063	French	7,398	94.5%
Virginia	Spanish	649,137	Arabic*	63,341	82.6%
Washington	Spanish	665,921	Chinese	141,867	78.6%
West Virginia	Spanish	19,863	Arabic*	2,406	97.5%
Wisconsin	Spanish	276,721	Hmong	39,624	91.0%
Wyoming	Spanish	26,551	German	1,780	93.2%
USA	Spanish	42,869,908	Chinese	3,549,780	77.7%

Source: Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B16001.

How the map changed, decade by decade

Flip through the eras and the repaint is dramatic: 33 of 51 states changed their after-English-and-Spanish leader since 2000. In 2000, eight states had something other than Spanish in the number-two spot: Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Vermont. Spanish then took Louisiana, New Hampshire, and the Dakotas by 2015, and is mid-takeover in Vermont now.

The era maps below group the Census’s language rows into stable families so the decades compare fairly; the Census split South Asian languages into many more rows in 2016, and grouped, they now lead the family-level map in 23 states. Wisconsin’s line tells the whole American story in one state: German in 2000, Hmong ever since.

20002010201520192024

In 2000, German led the family map in 19 states and French in 12.