The Most Common Language In Each US State—Besides English And Spanish12345SEXPAND
In 43 of the 50 United States, Spanish is the most commonly spoken language after English. But if we remove Spanish from the mix, which language turns up most in each state?
Using data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, Ben Blatt at Slate has created several language maps of the US that go beyond just English and Spanish. There are only seven states in which Spanish is not the second most commonly spoken language: Yupik in Alaska, Tagalog in Hawaii, German in North Dakota, and French in Louisiana, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.
The map above tells a somewhat different story about languages in the US than his map showing the prevalence of Spanish, but Blatt doesn't stop there. He also creates maps showing the most common Native American language, Scandinavian language, Indo-Aryan language, and African language in each state. Individually, the maps are interesting, but together they create a much richer picture of the linguistic and cultural makeup of the US.