How many people in New Mexico speak a language other than English at home?
Refreshed annually
In 2024, about 635,500 people age 5 and older in New Mexico spoke a language other than English at home. That's about one in 3 New Mexicans. Excluding English, Spanish is the most common language spoken in New Mexico homes. About 79.2% of people speaking a non-English language spoke Spanish.
636K
people speak a language other than English at home (2024)
79.2%
Spanish's share of non-English language speakers (2024)
More than half of all people in New Mexico speaking a non-English language at home spoke one of three languages: Spanish, Navajo, or Other Native languages of North America.
Spanish is the most-spoken non-English language in New Mexico homes, followed by Navajo and Other Native languages of North America.
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 New Mexico, 31.4% of residents ages 5 and older, or 635,500 people, spoke a language other than English at home in 2024, compared with 23% nationwide. Spanish was the most common non-English language, spoken by 503,100 people, followed by Navajo and Other Native languages of North America. 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, New Mexico's residents were more likely to speak a non-English language at home than the population nationwide. While about 0.63% of the US's 5+ population lived in New Mexico, the state was home to 0.86% of the nation's non-English speakers — a sign that New Mexico had a disproportionately larger share of non-English households.
The non-English languages most concentrated in New Mexico were Navajo (39.0% of all US speakers), Other Native languages of North America (16.9%), and Spanish (1.1%).
In New Mexico, the state had the biggest population of Other Native languages of North America speakers in the US. About 27,555 Other Native languages of North America speakers lived in New Mexico, or 16.9% of the language's 163,247 US speakers.
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Navajo is the language for which New Mexico 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 [New Mexico] whose primary language at home is not English [decreased] [5.6%]. The number of people speaking [Spanish] — the largest of the Census Bureau's four broad language categories in [New Mexico] — [shrunk] [3.6%] during this period.
In New Mexico, the number of people speaking Spanish at home shrunk 3.6% since 2018
Non-English language speakers ages 5 and older at home, by broad language group
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USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
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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.
