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
| Language | Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 9,309,771 | 7,151,043 | 2,158,728 |
| Speak only English | 4,163,545 | 4,163,545 | --- |
| Latin (Romance) & Southern European Languages | |||
| Spanish | 3,546,775 | 2,099,845 | 1,446,930 |
| French (incl. Cajun) | 35,579 | 31,459 | 4,120 |
| Haitian | 2,464 | 1,982 | 482 |
| Italian | 13,902 | 11,198 | 2,704 |
| Portuguese | 17,467 | 11,832 | 5,635 |
| Greek | 17,991 | 16,069 | 1,922 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Northern European Languages | |||
| German | 5,439 | 4,872 | 567 |
| Yiddish, Pennsylvania Dutch or other West Germanic languages (including Scandanavian) | 4,969 | 3,938 | 1,031 |
| Slavic Languages & Hungarian | |||
| Russian | 56,443 | 32,338 | 24,105 |
| Polish | 4,999 | 4,091 | 908 |
| Serbo-Croatian | 5,916 | 4,141 | 1,775 |
| Ukrainian or other Slavic languages | 5,898 | 4,967 | 931 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Indic & Other Indo-European Languages | |||
| Armenian | 189,633 | 107,625 | 82,008 |
| Persian (incl. Farsi, Dari) | 76,069 | 43,865 | 32,204 |
| Gujarati | 7,574 | 4,723 | 2,851 |
| Hindi | 23,222 | 19,018 | 4,204 |
| Urdu | 10,159 | 7,676 | 2,483 |
| Punjabi | 8,047 | 4,204 | 3,843 |
| Bengali | 10,693 | 5,678 | 5,015 |
| Nepali, Marathi, or other Indic languages | 11,450 | 7,790 | 3,660 |
| Other Indo-European languages | 13,944 | 11,778 | 2,166 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Asian Languages | |||
| Telugu | 5,358 | 4,309 | 1,049 |
| Tamil | 5,013 | 4,655 | 358 |
| Malayalam, Kannada, or other Dravidian languages | 4,436 | 3,870 | 566 |
| Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese) | 364,321 | 147,967 | 216,354 |
| Japanese | 50,382 | 25,269 | 25,113 |
| Korean | 158,248 | 68,576 | 89,672 |
| Hmong | 633 | 324 | 309 |
| Vietnamese | 71,261 | 25,474 | 45,787 |
| Khmer | 22,346 | 9,175 | 13,171 |
| Thai, Lao, or other Tai-Kadai languages | 17,509 | 7,664 | 9,845 |
| Other languages of Asia | 15,937 | 7,396 | 8,541 |
| Language | Total Speakers | Speak English "very well" | Speak English less than "very well" |
| Pacific Islander Languages | |||
| Tagalog (incl. Filipino) | 223,622 | 149,634 | 73,988 |
| Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian, or other Austronesian languages | 29,759 | 18,136 | 11,623 |
| Arabic, Hebrew, African, Native North American & Other Languages | |||
| Arabic | 49,817 | 32,142 | 17,675 |
| Hebrew | 20,840 | 16,322 | 4,518 |
| Amharic, Somali, or other Afro-Asiatic languages | 9,995 | 6,230 | 3,765 |
| Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, or other languages of Western Africa | 10,488 | 7,876 | 2,612 |
| Swahili or other languages of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa | 3,609 | 2,939 | 670 |
| Navajo | 375 | 375 | 0 |
| Other Native languages of North America | 1,198 | 997 | 201 |
| Other and unspecified languages | 12,446 | 9,079 | 3,367 |
* Annual estimate from data and surveys collected over a one-year period by the U.S. Census American Community Survey for 2021.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
According to the late, renowned UCLA linguistics professor, Vyacheslav Ivanov, there were 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. Only 92 languages were specifically identified among students of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
