How many people in Washington state speak a language other than English at home?
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In 2024, about 1.68 million people age 5 and older in Washington spoke a language other than English at home. That's about one in 4.5 Washingtonians. Excluding English, Spanish is the most common language spoken in Washington homes. About 40.8% of people speaking a non-English language spoke Spanish.
1.68M
people speak a language other than English at home (2024)
40.8%
Spanish's share of non-English language speakers (2024)
More than half of all people in Washington speaking a non-English language at home spoke one of three languages: Spanish, Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese), or Vietnamese.
Spanish is the most-spoken non-English language in Washington homes, followed by Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese) and Vietnamese.
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 Washington, 1.68 million residents ages 5 and older, or 22.3%, spoke a language other than English at home in 2024, compared with 23% nationally.
Based on data from 2024, Washington's residents were less likely to speak a non-English language at home than the population nationwide. While about 2.3% of the US's 5+ population lived in Washington, the state was home to 2.3% of the nation's non-English speakers — a sign that Washington had a disproportionately smaller share of non-English households.
The non-English languages most concentrated in Washington were Khmer (8.5% of all US speakers), Ukrainian or other Slavic languages (8.0%), and Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian, or other Austronesian languages (7.0%).
In Washington, no non-English language had its largest US-speaking population in the state. Khmer was the language for which Washington accounted for the largest share of US speakers, at 8.5%.
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Khmer is the language for which Washington 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 Washington whose primary language at home is not English increased 18.6%. The number of people speaking Spanish — the largest of the Census Bureau's four broad language categories in Washington — grew 12.4% during this period.
In Washington, the number of people speaking Spanish at home grew 12.4% 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.
