US language data · 2024 ACS 5-year
Languages spoken in Illinois
Of 12,003,587 residents of Illinois aged 5 and over, 2,886,369 (24.0%) speak a language other than English at home, and 1,074,861 (9.0%) speak English less than "very well".
The most common non-English language is Spanish with 1,681,635 speakers, followed by Polish (164,756).
Limited-English-proficiency counts are the best public proxy for local demand for interpreters and document translation in healthcare, courts, schools and social services.
| Language spoken at home | Speakers (5+) | Speak English < “very well” | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish↗ | 1,681,635 | 659,015 | |
| Polish↗ | 164,756 | 70,088 | |
| Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese)↗ | 107,782 | 52,430 | |
| Tagalog (incl. Filipino)↗ | 85,343 | 21,796 | |
| Arabic↗ | 72,625 | 22,373 | |
| Urdu↗ | 59,876 | 15,300 | |
| Ukrainian or other Slavic languages↗ | 54,284 | 24,860 | |
| Other Indo-European languages ↗ | 53,792 | 18,043 | |
| Gujarati↗ | 48,504 | 18,786 | |
| Russian↗ | 46,897 | 19,090 | |
| Hindi↗ | 46,102 | 7,733 | |
| Korean↗ | 41,402 | 20,671 | |
| French (incl. Cajun)↗ | 36,517 | 9,890 | |
| Serbo-Croatian↗ | 32,478 | 11,337 | |
| German↗ | 30,649 | 4,146 | |
| Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, or other languages of Western Africa↗ | 30,191 | 7,188 | |
| Telugu↗ | 24,426 | 4,153 | |
| Greek↗ | 24,354 | 5,821 | |
| Italian↗ | 24,057 | 6,219 | |
| Other languages of Asia ↗ | 22,626 | 10,592 | |
| Vietnamese↗ | 21,981 | 11,248 | |
| Amharic, Somali, or other Afro-Asiatic languages↗ | 20,796 | 7,920 | |
| Malayalam, Kannada, or other Dravidian languages↗ | 18,468 | 5,089 | |
| Tamil↗ | 15,375 | 2,598 | |
| Nepali, Marathi, or other Indic languages↗ | 15,268 | 4,649 | |
| Japanese↗ | 12,943 | 4,882 | |
| Thai, Lao, or other Tai-Kadai languages↗ | 11,012 | 5,832 | |
| Portuguese↗ | 10,914 | 2,301 | |
| Persian (incl. Farsi, Dari)↗ | 9,769 | 3,349 | |
| Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian, or other Austronesian languages ↗ | 9,152 | 2,872 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 5-year estimates, table B16001. Estimates have margins of error.