Languages of the United States

English is the de facto national language (language used in common practice) of the United States, with 82% of the population claiming it as a mother tongue, and some 96% claiming to speak it "well" or "very well".^[1] However, no official language exists at the federal level (all branches of the federal government). This means that, while the federal government uses English, it is not legally required to. The Constitution of the United States does not mention an official language.^[2] There have been several proposals to make English the de jure national language in amendments to immigration reform bills,^[3][4] but none of these bills have made a federal language. However, some states have adopted English as their official language. On March 1, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that claimed to make English the official language of the U.S.,^[5] but it is limited to the executive branch and does not affect the legislative or judicial branches.^[6] The legal power of an executive order must come from the Constitution or legislation passed by Congress.^[7][8] Neither the Constitution or congressional legislation specify an official language, so the president has no power to make English the official language with an executive order.

On the other hand, a lot of other languages, like Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Polish, Finnish, Dutch, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Hindi, Mandarin, Hebrew, Cantonese, Chinese, Hawaiian, Ukrainian, Navajo, Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Portuguese, etc. are spoken in the United States as second languages.

1. ↑ Summary Tables on Language Use and English Ability: 2000 (PHC-T-20), U.S. Census Bureau, retrieved 2008-02-22
2. ↑ "FYI: English isn't the official language of the United States". CNN. May 20, 2018.
3. ↑ U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress - 2nd Session, United States Senate, retrieved 2008-02-22
4. ↑ "Senate Amendment 1151 to Senate Bill 1348, Immigration Act of 2007". project Vote Smart. Archived from the original on 2011-05-21. Retrieved 2008-07-04..
5. ↑ McGraw, Meredith (28 February 2025). "Trump to Sign Executive Order Making English Official U.S. Language". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
6. ↑ "Government information: executive orders". University of Massachusetts at Amherst. February 10, 2025. Retrieved March 5, 2025.
7. ↑ John Contrubis, Executive Orders and Proclamations, CRS Report for Congress #95-722A, March 9, 1999, Pp. 1-2
8. ↑ Antieau, Chester James; Rich, William J. (1997). Modern Constitutional Law. Vol. 3. West Group. p. 528. ISBN 978-0-7620-0194-1.