Report: Record 64.7 Million U.S. Residents Speaking Foreign Language at Home

A record one-in-five U.S. residents speak a foreign language at home, with the fastest-growing languages including Arabic and Urdu, a new study reveals.

The Center for Immigration Studies, surveying data the Census Bureau released from its 2015 American Community Survey, found 64.7 million U.S. residents spoke a language other than English at home, with data indicating that one-in-four public school students speaking a foreign language at home.

This has huge implications for the future of public education in the United States. As Breitbart News previously reported, American taxpayers carry the costs of educating nearly four million foreign-born students who do no speak English. Most of the non-English speakers in American schools perform at extremely low levels while costing taxpayers roughly $59.8 billion per year:

• Nearly one in ten students enrolled in public schools is designated as Limited English Proficiency (LEP).
  While the federal government provides eight percent of school funding, it provides only one percent of funding for LEP students; state and local taxes fund the mandated $59.2 billion program annually.
• According to FAIR’s estimate, there are approximately 3.62 million illegal alien students enrolled in public schools nationwide, costing taxpayers an average $12,128 each.
• Taxpayers are forced to shell out $1.7 billion annually to pay education costs for over 119,000 Central American illegal alien minors, whose record number of border crossings show no signs of slowing.
• Ninety-two percent of fourth-grade LEP students perform at Basic or Below Basic levels.
• Ninety-six percent of eighth-grade LEP students perform at Basic or Below Basic levels.
• Ninety-six percent of eighth-grade LEP students perform at Basic or Below Basic levels, with 76 percent performing at the Below Basic level.
• The number of LEP students from eighth to twelfth grade capable of performing Advanced work rounds to zero percent.
• The “abominable” LEP performance numbers have led to the creation of the Long Term English Language Learners (LTEL) category, which includes students “who have been enrolled in school for six or more years but are making scant progress learning English.” As many as half of all LEP students nationwide may fall into this category, the National Education Association estimates.

As the Center notes, “half of the growth in foreign-language speakers since 2010 is among those born in the United States.” And “overall, 44 percent (28.5 million) of those who speak a language other than English at home are U.S.-born,” meaning these nationwide problems will only worsen over time.

Eleven percent of U.S. residents spoke a language other than English at home in 1980. Only 35 years later, that share increased to 21.5 percent of the U.S. population.

Arabic speakers increased dramatically in the U.S., with a 34 percent increase from 2010 to 2015:

The largest percentage increases from 2010 to 2015 were among speakers of Arabic (up 34 percent), Hindi (up 33 percent), Urdu (up 24 percent), Chinese (up 19 percent), French Creole (up 16 percent), Gujarati (up 14 percent), and Persian (up 13 percent). Hindi and Gujarati are languages of India; Urdu is spoken in Pakistan; French Creole is spoken in Haiti; and Persian is the national language of Iran.

The largest numerical increases from 2010 to 2015 were among speakers of Spanish (up 3.1 million), Chinese (up 525,000), Arabic (up 292,000), Hindi (up 203,000), Tagalog (up 163,000), French Creole (up 117,000), and Urdu (up 92,000). Tagalog is spoken in the Philippines…

States with the largest share of their populations speaking a foreign language at home in 2015 were: California (45 percent), Texas (35 percent), New Mexico (34 percent), New York (31 percent), New Jersey (31 percent), Nevada (30 percent), Florida (29 percent), Arizona (27 percent), Hawaii (26 percent), Illinois (23 percent), and Massachusetts (23 percent).

Nevada saw its share of foreign-language speakers explode from 1980 to 2015 with a 1,005 percent increase. Georgia and North Carolina saw their share increase 916 percent and 729 percent. Virginia, where 23 percent of Northern Virginia residents are foreigners and 68 percent of the state’s foreign-born population is clustered around the D.C. Beltway, saw its share rise 460 percent. Florida’s share increased 356 percent. North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida are must-win swing states in presidential elections. Progressives deliberately craft immigration policy to disenfranchise Americans: As President Obama told Latino audience in Florida last year, there will be a “President Rodriguez” “someday” thanks in part to him unilaterally granting illegal aliens amnesty.

There were 40 million Spanish speakers, 3.3 million Chinese speakers, 1.7 million Tagalog speakers, and 1.2 million Arabic speakers in the U.S. in 2015.

Forty percent of those who primarily speak a foreign language at home also told the Census Bureau they don’t speak English very well.

As Breitbart News previously reported, current extreme immigration levels will by 2060 import 78.2 million foreign-born people.