How many people in West Virginia speak a language other than English at home?
Refreshed annually
In 2024, about 47,500 people age 5 and older in West Virginia spoke a language other than English at home. That's about one in 35 West Virginians. Excluding English, Spanish is the most common language spoken in West Virginia homes. About 41.8% of people speaking a non-English language spoke Spanish.
47.5K
people speak a language other than English at home (2024)
41.8%
Spanish's share of non-English language speakers (2020–2024)
More than half of all people in West Virginia speaking a non-English language at home spoke one of three languages: Spanish, Arabic, or German.
Spanish is the most-spoken non-English language in West Virginia homes, followed by Arabic and German.
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. In 2024, 47,500 West Virginia residents ages 5 and older spoke a language other than English at home, or 2.8% of the state’s 1.68 million people in this age group, and Spanish was the most common language other than English, spoken by 19,900 people. 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, West Virginia's residents were less likely to speak a non-English language at home than the population nationwide. While about 0.52% of the US's 5+ population lived in West Virginia, the state was home to 0.06% of the nation's non-English speakers — a sign that West Virginia had a disproportionately smaller share of non-English households.
The non-English languages most concentrated in West Virginia were Arabic (0.2% of all US speakers), Japanese (0.2%), and Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch or other West Germanic languages (0.2%).
In West Virginia, no non-English language had its largest US-speaking population in the state. Arabic was the language for which West Virginia accounted for the largest share of US speakers, at 0.2%.
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Italian is the language for which West Virginia 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 West Virginia whose primary language at home is not English increased 12.0%. The number of people speaking Spanish — the largest of the Census Bureau's four broad language categories in West Virginia — grew 31.3% during this period.
In West Virginia, the number of people speaking Spanish at home grew 31.3% 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.
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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.
