Language Totem in Grand Central Park, Los Angeles. Los Angeles Almanac Photo.
Also see:
-- Language Spoken at Home, Cities & Communities, Los Angeles County
-- Language Spoken at Home, City of Los Angeles (Most Recent Estimates)
-- Language Spoken at Home, Los Angeles County, 2010
Per recent Census estimates, slightly less than a quarter of all L.A. County residents, age five and older, speak English less than "very well." More than 50 percent of L.A. County speakers of Vietnamese, Korean, Khmer, Chinese, Thai, Lao, or other Tai-Kadai languages speak English less than "very well." Of Spanish speaking L.A. County residents, 42 percent speak English less than "very well."
| Language | Total Speakers | Percent of Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 9,282,796 | 100.00% | 7,095,006 | 2,187,790 |
| Speak only English | 4,158,130 | 44.79% | --- | --- |
| Latin (Romance) & Southern European Languages | ||||
| Spanish | 3,489,855 | 37.59% | 2,010,754 | 1,479,101 |
| French (incl. Cajun) | 34,590 | 0.37% | 28,640 | 5,950 |
| Haitian | 4,976 | 0.05% | 4,392 | 584 |
| Italian | 12,716 | 0.14% | 10,679 | 2,037 |
| Portuguese | 13,636 | 0.15% | 10,216 | 3,420 |
| German | 21,059 | 0.23% | 19,778 | 1,281 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Percent of Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Northern European Languages | ||||
| Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch or other West Germanic languages (including Scandanavian) | 4,528 | 0.05% | 4,181 | 347 |
| Greek | 4,015 | 0.04% | 2,984 | 1,031 |
| Slavic Languages & Hungarian | ||||
| Russian | 58,392 | 0.63% | 31,488 | 26,904 |
| Polish | 6,493 | 0.07% | 5,280 | 1,213 |
| Serbo-Croatian | 7,039 | 0.08% | 5,529 | 1,510 |
| Ukrainian or other Slavic languages | 11,393 | 0.12% | 6,858 | 4,535 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Percent of Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Indic & Other Indo-European Languages | ||||
| Armenian | 198,707 | 2.14% | 108,070 | 90,637 |
| Persian (incl. Farsi, Dari) | 74,454 | 0.80% | 46,531 | 27,923 |
| Gujarati | 7,097 | 0.08% | 5,356 | 1,741 |
| Hindi | 27,281 | 0.29% | 21,515 | 5,766 |
| Urdu | 10,475 | 0.11% | 6,552 | 3,923 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Percent of Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Punjabi | 5,889 | 0.06% | 4,084 | 1,805 |
| Bengali | 14,609 | 0.16% | 8,228 | 6,381 |
| Nepali, Marathi, or other Indic languages | 11,986 | 0.13% | 8,345 | 3,641 |
| Other Indo-European languages | 12,996 | 0.14% | 11,134 | 1,862 |
| Asian Languages | ||||
| Telugu | 7,458 | 0.08% | 6,933 | 525 |
| Tamil | 4,817 | 0.05% | 3,823 | 994 |
| Malayalam, Kannada, or other Dravidian languages | 4,566 | 0.05% | 3,897 | 669 |
| Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese) | 383,333 | 4.13% | 163,671 | 219,662 |
| Japanese | 47,680 | 0.51% | 29,677 | 18,003 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Percent of Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Korean | 147,864 | 1.59% | 59,660 | 88,204 |
| Hmong | 776 | 0.01% | 776 | 0 |
| Vietnamese | 71,281 | 0.77% | 26,579 | 44,702 |
| Khmer | 21,652 | 0.23% | 8,744 | 12,908 |
| Thai, Lao, or other Tai-Kadai languages | 22,033 | 0.24% | 9,736 | 12,297 |
| Other languages of Asia | 10,403 | 0.11% | 5,573 | 4,830 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Percent of Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Pacific Islander Languages | ||||
| Tagalog (incl. Filipino) | 224,158 | 2.41% | 157,486 | 66,672 |
| Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian, or other Austronesian languages | 26,704 | 0.29% | 17,326 | 9,378 |
| Arabic, Hebrew, African, Native North American & Other Languages | ||||
| Arabic | 49,754 | 0.54% | 30,123 | 19,631 |
| Hebrew | 21,983 | 0.24% | 19,064 | 2,919 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Percent of Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Amharic, Somali, or other Afro-Asiatic languages | 14,566 | 0.16% | 10,271 | 4,295 |
| Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, or other languages of Western Africa | 13,894 | 0.15% | 10,902 | 2,992 |
| Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa | 4,645 | 0.05% | 3,775 | 870 |
| Navajo | 149 | 0.002% | 149 | 0 |
| Other Native languages of North America | 1,530 | 0.02% | 1,374 | 156 |
| Other and unspecified languages | 10,594 | 0.12% | 6,291 | 4,303 |
* Annual estimate from data and surveys collected over a one-year period by the U.S. Census American Community Survey.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
In 2023, the Los Angeles Unified School District reported that 154 languages, including English, were spoken by students in the district.
According to the late, renowned UCLA linguistics professor, Vyacheslav Ivanov, there were, at one point, at least 224 identified languages spoken in Los Angeles County. This did not include differing dialects. Professor Ivanov estimated that publications are locally produced in about 180 of these languages.
