How many people in South Carolina speak a language other than English at home?
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In 2024, about 468,100 people age 5 and older in South Carolina spoke a language other than English at home. That's about one in 11 South Carolinians. Excluding English, Spanish is the most common language spoken in South Carolina homes. About 60.3% of people speaking a non-English language spoke Spanish.
468K
people speak a language other than English at home (2024)
60.3%
Spanish's share of non-English language speakers (2024)
More than half of all people in South Carolina speaking a non-English language at home spoke one of three languages: Spanish, French (incl. Cajun), or Russian.
Spanish is the most-spoken non-English language in South Carolina homes, followed by French (incl. Cajun) and Russian.
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, South Carolina's residents were less likely to speak a non-English language at home than the population nationwide. While about 1.6% of the US's 5+ population lived in South Carolina, the state was home to 0.63% of the nation's non-English speakers — a sign that South Carolina had a disproportionately smaller share of non-English households.
The non-English languages most concentrated in South Carolina were Gujarati (2.2% of all US speakers), Greek (1.7%), and German (1.6%).
In South Carolina, no non-English language had its largest US-speaking population in the state. Gujarati was the language for which South Carolina accounted for the largest share of US speakers, at 2.2%.
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Gujarati is the language for which South Carolina 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 South Carolina whose primary language at home is not English increased 32.5%. The number of people speaking Spanish — the largest of the Census Bureau's four broad language categories in South Carolina — grew 26.7% during this period.
In South Carolina, the number of people speaking Spanish at home grew 26.7% 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.
