New LMRI Statistical Brief--The Growth of the Linguistic Minority Population in the U.S. and California, 1980-2005

[Harold F. Schiffman]

New LMRI Statistical Brief--The Growth of the Linguistic Minority
Population in the U.S. and California, 1980-2005

           The Growth of the Linguistic Minority Population in the U.S.
and California, 1980-2005

            Linguistic minorities represent one of the largest segments of
the school-age population in the United States and in California.
According to data from the U.S. Census, there were 10.5 million children,
age 5-17, living in the United States in 2005 who spoke a language other
than English, representing 20 percent of the school-age population (Figure
1). In California, 3.9 million school-age children spoke a language other
than English at home, more than 44 percent of the population. Overall,
while California is home to 13 percent of all school-age children, it is
home to 29 percent of all school-age linguistic minority children in the
U.S.

            Over the last 25 years, the linguistic minority population has
exploded relative to the English-only population, both in California and
in the rest of the U.S. In California, the linguistic minority population
increased 187 percent, while the English-only population increased by only
8 percent. In the U.S. overall, the linguistic minority population
increased by 130 percent, while the English-only population actually
declined by 1.3 percent. This means that over the last 25 years virtually
all of the 5 million additional school age children in the United States
were linguistic minorities!

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