How many people in Rhode Island speak a language other than English at home?
Refreshed annually
In 2024, about 250,200 people age 5 and older in Rhode Island spoke a language other than English at home. That's about one in 4 Rhode Islanders. Excluding English, Spanish is the most common language spoken in Rhode Island homes. About 60% of people speaking a non-English language spoke Spanish.
250K
people speak a language other than English at home (2024)
60.0%
Spanish's share of non-English language speakers (2024)
More than half of all people in Rhode Island speaking a non-English language at home spoke one of three languages: Spanish, Portuguese, or French (incl. Cajun).
Spanish is the most-spoken non-English language in Rhode Island homes, followed by Portuguese and French (incl. Cajun).
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, Rhode Island's residents were less likely to speak a non-English language at home than the population nationwide. While about 0.33% of the US's 5+ population lived in Rhode Island, the state was home to 0.34% of the nation's non-English speakers — a sign that Rhode Island had a disproportionately smaller share of non-English households.
The non-English languages most concentrated in Rhode Island were Portuguese (3.0% of all US speakers), Thai, Lao, or other Tai-Kadai languages (1.3%), and Khmer (1.3%).
In Rhode Island, no non-English language had its largest US-speaking population in the state. Portuguese was the language for which Rhode Island accounted for the largest share of US speakers, at 3.0%.
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Portuguese is the language for which Rhode Island 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 Rhode Island whose primary language at home is not English increased 14.8%. The number of people speaking Spanish — the largest of the Census Bureau's four broad language categories in Rhode Island — grew 22.1% during this period.
In Rhode Island, the number of people speaking Spanish at home grew 22.1% 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.
