How many people in Montana speak a language other than English at home?
Refreshed annually
In 2024, about 48,300 people age 5 and older in Montana spoke a language other than English at home. That's about one in 22 Montanans. Excluding English, Spanish is the most common language spoken in Montana homes. About 31.7% of people speaking a non-English language spoke Spanish.
48.3K
people speak a language other than English at home (2024)
31.7%
Spanish's share of non-English language speakers (2020–2024)
More than half of all people in Montana speaking a non-English language at home spoke one of three languages: Spanish, German, or Other Native languages of North America.
Spanish is the most-spoken non-English language in Montana homes, followed by German and Other Native languages of North America.
People aged 5 or older who speak a language other than English at home, by language group (2020-2024)
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. In Montana, 48,300 people age 5 and older spoke a language other than English at home in 2024, or 4.5% of the state’s population age 5 and older. Spanish was the most common non-English language, spoken by 15,300 people, followed by German (6,700) and Other Native languages of North America (6,200).
Based on data from 2024, Montana's residents were less likely to speak a non-English language at home than the population nationwide. While about 0.34% of the US's 5+ population lived in Montana, the state was home to 0.07% of the nation's non-English speakers — a sign that Montana had a disproportionately smaller share of non-English households.
The non-English languages most concentrated in Montana were Other Native languages of North America (3.7% of all US speakers), German (0.8%), and Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch or other West Germanic languages (0.3%).
In Montana, no non-English language had its largest US-speaking population in the state. Other Native languages of North America was the language for which Montana accounted for the largest share of US speakers, at 3.7%.
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Other Native languages of North America is the language for which Montana 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 Montana whose primary language at home is not English increased 8.9%. The number of people speaking other Indo-European languages — the largest of the Census Bureau's four broad language categories in Montana — grew 21.2% during this period.
In Montana, the number of people speaking Other Indo-European languages at home grew 21.2% 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.
