How many people in Massachusetts speak a language other than English at home?
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In 2024, about 1.75 million people age 5 and older in Massachusetts spoke a language other than English at home. That's about one in 4 Bay Staters. Excluding English, Spanish is the most common language spoken in Massachusetts homes. About 38.2% of people speaking a non-English language spoke Spanish.
1.75M
people speak a language other than English at home (2024)
38.2%
Spanish's share of non-English language speakers (2024)
More than half of all people in Massachusetts speaking a non-English language at home spoke one of three languages: Spanish, Portuguese, or Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese).
Spanish is the most-spoken non-English language in Massachusetts homes, followed by Portuguese 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. In Massachusetts, 1.75 million residents ages 5 and older, or 25.8%, speak a language other than English at home, compared with 23% nationally; Spanish is the most common at 670,400 speakers, followed by Portuguese and Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese).
Based on data from 2024, Massachusetts's residents were more likely to speak a non-English language at home than the population nationwide. While about 2.1% of the US's 5+ population lived in Massachusetts, the state was home to 2.4% of the nation's non-English speakers — a sign that Massachusetts had a disproportionately larger share of non-English households.
The non-English languages most concentrated in Massachusetts were Portuguese (22.5% of all US speakers), Khmer (10.1%), and Haitian (8.4%).
In Massachusetts, the state had the biggest population of Portuguese speakers in the US. About 247,638 Portuguese speakers lived in Massachusetts, or 22.5% of the language's 1,099,503 US speakers.
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Portuguese is the language for which Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts whose primary language at home is not English increased 10.3%. The number of people speaking Spanish — the largest of the Census Bureau's four broad language categories in Massachusetts — grew 8.9% during this period.
In Massachusetts, the number of people speaking Spanish at home grew 8.9% 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.
