Languages in California

As of 2005, 57.6% of California residents age five and older spoke English as a first language at home, while 28.2% spoke Spanish. In addition to English and Spanish, 2.0% spoke Filipino, 1.6% spoke Chinese (which included Cantonese [0.6%] and Mandarin [0.4%]), 1.4% spoke Vietnamese, and 1.1% spoke Korean as their mother tongue. In total, 42.4% of the population spoke languages other than English. California was historically one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, and is home to more than 70 indigenous languages derived from 64 root languages in 6 language families. About half of the indigenous languages are no longer spoken, and all of California's living indigenous languages are endangered. There are some efforts toward language revitalization, such as for the Karuk language.




The official language of California has been English since the passage of Proposition 63 in 1986. However, many state, city, and local government agencies still continue to print official public documents in numerous languages. For example, the California Department of Motor Vehicles offers the written exam for the standard C Class driver's license in 31 languages along with English, and the audio exam in 11 languages.



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