Mental Floss

The 10 Languages Americans Want to Learn the Most

Spanish tops the list.

ByCaLea Johnson|
Find out which languages people in the U.S. care about learning the most.
Find out which languages people in the U.S. care about learning the most. | Constantine Johnny/GettyImages

Tackling a new language may seem intimidating, but the payoff is worth it. We’ve already covered the languages each country wants to learn the most in 2024. If you’re interested in which languages are most popular among aspiring polyglots in the U.S., check out the list below.

Experts from the educational site Class Central determined the top languages Americans want to learn using Google Keyword Planner. This tool allowed researchers to analyze 166 languages with 2316 unique keyword combinations across all 50 U.S. states. They looked at 15 search term variations for each language, including “(language) class,” “(language) tutor,” “(language) online,” and “Duolingo (language).” Closely related keywords concerning languages and dialects were combined. For example, the search results for Mandarin, Cantonese, and Chinese were sorted into the same entry. This method gave a more accurate representation of the popularity of these languages. The number of searches for each term was added to reveal each state‘s total, and the total was then compared to the U.S. population to calculate the number of searches per 100,000 people. This study examined data from the past 12 months.  

Class Central’s research shows that Spanish is the most sought-after language for Americans, with nearly every state wanting to learn it above all others. People in the U.S. search for Spanish an average of 383,579 times per month. That’s not surprising since Spanish is already incredibly popular in the country. The U.S. is also currently the world’s second-largest Spanish-speaking country after Mexico. More than 41 million people know it as a first language, and the number continues to grow. 

English is the second most popular language that Americans want to learn. Although the U.S. is a predominantly English-speaking country, people still Google queries related to English learning an average of 95,524 times monthly. Chinese comes in third with 89,273 monthly searches. The language follows English in the list of most spoken languages worldwide by a small margin. Moreover, the United States Census Bureau reported Chinese as one of the top five languages spoken within U.S. households in 2023.

You can find the rest of the top 10 languages Americans want to learn below:

  1. Spanish
  2. English
  3. Chinese
  4. Japanese
  5. Persian
  6. German
  7. French
  8. Filipino
  9. Italian
  10. Korean

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