ARABIC is the Fastest Growing Language in American Homes
by
Wcbm
Arabic is the fastest-growing language in American households — and that’s leading the US Census Bureau to explore the tricky task of adjusting its questionnaires to accommodate the language’s right-to-left script.
The bureau is using focus groups to explore possible changes to the 2020 census questionnaires for Arabic speakers who are not English-proficient, the Pew Research Center reported Friday.
Arabic is now the seventh-most commonly spoken non-English language in US households. An estimated 1.1 million people ages 5 and older speak Arabic at home, an increase of 29 percent between 2010 and 2014.
The number who speak Spanish at home has grown only 6 percent during the same period.
Of those who speak Arabic at home, 38 percent are not proficient in English, according to census estimates.
That’s just below the 42 percent English-proficiency rate among the 39.3 million US residents who speak Spanish at home.
The growth in Arabic is linked to continued immigration from Middle Eastern and North African countries, according to the Pew Research Center.
