In 2006, about 20 percent of children ages 5–17 spoke a language other than English at home, and 5 percent spoke English with difficulty.

Between 1979 and 2006, the number of school-age children (children ages 5–17) who spoke a language other than English at home increased from 3.8 to 10.8 million, or from 9 to 20 percent of the population in this age range (see table 7-1). An increase was also evident during the more recent period of 2000 to 2006 (from 18 to 20 percent). The percentage of 5- to 17-year-old children who spoke English with difficulty increased from 3 to 6 percent between 1979 and 2000, but this percentage did not change measurably between 2000 and 2006 (it remained between 5 and 6 percent). The number of children who spoke English with difficulty as a proportion of children who spoke another language at home has continued to decrease over time. For example, of the children who spoke a language other than English at home, 34 percent spoke English with difficulty in 1979, compared with 31 percent in 2000 and 25 percent in 2006.

In 2006, about 72 percent (7.8 million) of the school-age children who spoke a language other than English at home spoke Spanish (see table 7-2). The next largest number of children who spoke a non-English language at home spoke other Indo-European¹ languages, followed by those who spoke Asian/Pacific Islander² languages, and then by those who spoke other languages. Higher percentages of children who spoke Spanish or an Asian/Pacific Islander language at home spoke English with difficulty (27 and 28 percent, respectively) than did those who spoke other Indo-European languages (19 percent) or other languages (18 percent) at home.

The percentages of school-age children speaking a language other than English at home and who spoke English with difficulty varied by race/ethnicity and poverty status in 2006. Among school-age children, 18 percent of Hispanics and 17 percent of Asians spoke a language other than English at home and spoke English with difficulty, compared with 6 percent of Pacific Islanders, 3 percent of American Indians/Alaska Natives, and 1 percent each of Whites, Blacks, and children of more than one race. In terms of poverty status, higher percentages of poor (10 percent) and near-poor (8 percent) 5- to 17-year-olds spoke a non-English language at home and spoke English with difficulty than did nonpoor 5- to 17-year-olds (3 percent).

¹ An Indo-European language other than Spanish (e.g., French, German, Portuguese, etc.). (back to text)

² Any native language spoken by Asians or Pacific Islanders, which linguists classify variously as Sino-Tibetan, Austroasiatic, or Austronesian languages. (back to text)