How many people in Idaho speak a language other than English at home?
Refreshed annually
In 2024, about 215,400 people age 5 and older in Idaho spoke a language other than English at home. That's about one in 9 Idahoans. Excluding English, Spanish is the most common language spoken in Idaho homes. About 72.7% of people speaking a non-English language spoke Spanish.
215K
people speak a language other than English at home (2024)
72.7%
Spanish's share of non-English language speakers (2024)
More than half of all people in Idaho speaking a non-English language at home spoke one of three languages: Spanish, Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, or Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese).
Spanish is the most-spoken non-English language in Idaho homes, followed by Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa and Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese).
People aged 5 or older who speak a language other than English at home, by language group (2024)
The ACS asks people if they speak a language other than English at home, what that language is, and how well they speak English. This data determines bilingual election requirements under the Voting Rights Act and has also been used to allocate funds for students with lower English proficiency.
Based on data from 2024, Idaho's residents were less likely to speak a non-English language at home than the population nationwide. While about 0.59% of the US's 5+ population lived in Idaho, the state was home to 0.29% of the nation's non-English speakers — a sign that Idaho had a disproportionately smaller share of non-English households.
The non-English languages most concentrated in Idaho were Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa (1.2% of all US speakers), Ukrainian or other Slavic languages (0.9%), and Other Native languages of North America (0.8%).
In Idaho, no non-English language had its largest US-speaking population in the state. Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa was the language for which Idaho accounted for the largest share of US speakers, at 1.2%.
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Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa is the language for which Idaho makes up the largest share of US speakers
State share of national speakers by language, ages 5 and older (2024)
Population change
The US population gained 1.78 million people between 2024 and 2025.
Between 2018 and 2024, the number of people in Idaho whose primary language at home is not English increased 20.4%. The number of people speaking Spanish — the largest of the Census Bureau's four broad language categories in Idaho — grew 16.3% during this period.
In Idaho, the number of people speaking Spanish at home grew 16.3% since 2018
Non-English language speakers ages 5 and older at home, by broad language group
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
Page sources
USAFacts endeavors to share the most up-to-date information available. We sourced the data on this page directly from government agencies; however, the intervals at which agencies publish updated data vary.
