This user note is for the detailed table package titled “Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2017-2021.”

The American Community Survey (ACS) 2017-2021 multi-year data are used to list all languages spoken in the United States that were reported during the sample period. These tables provide detailed counts of many more languages than the 42 languages and language groups that are published annually as a part of the routine ACS data release. This is the third tabulation beyond 42 languages since the ACS began.

The table “Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over in the United States: 2017-2021” includes all languages that were reported during the 2017 to 2021 sampling period. For the purpose of tabulation, reported languages are classified into one of over 1,300 possible languages or language groups. Because the data are a sample of the total population, there may be languages spoken that are not reported, either because the ACS did not sample the households where those languages are spoken, or because the person filling out the survey did not report the language or reported another language instead.

For the table “Top 15 Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English by State for the Population 5 Years and Over in the United States: 2017-2021," the order of languages is based on point estimates alone, and differences between ranks may not be significant at the 90 percent confidence level.

The tables also provide information about self-reported English-speaking ability. Respondents who reported speaking a language other than English were asked to indicate their ability to speak English in one of the following categories: "Very well," "Well," "Not well," or "Not at all." The data on ability to speak English represent the person’s own perception about their own ability or, because ACS questionnaires are usually completed by one household member, the responses may represent the perception of another household member.