Immigrants Learn English: Immigrants’ Language Acquisition Rates by Country of Origin and Demographics since 1900

Current U.S. immigrants have greater English language competency as compared to previous immigrant populations. Using decennial U.S. Census data from 1900-1930 compared to 1980-2010, Michelangelo Landgrave for the Cato Institute compares English fluency for foreign-born residents in each period and reports the results in Immigrants Learn English: Immigrants’ Language Acquisition Rates by Country of Origin and Demographics since 1900. Approximately 91 percent of immigrants living in the U.S. from 1980 to 2010 spoke English, compared to 86 percent of immigrants from 1900 to 1930. There is some historical discrepancy between the two sets of data; the census questions for 1900 to 1930 simply asked “know English” or “don’t know English,” whereas the 1980-2010 census questions employed a three-point proficiency scale, describing language acquisition as “speaks [English] very well,” “speaks [English] well,” and “speaks [English] but not well.” Landgrave’s analysis collapses the three-point proficiency responses into a single “knows English” for historic comparison. Interviewer effects and differing reference points may also have affected the more recent set of data, but this analysis suggests that English language acquisition has improved among U.S. immigrants in the past 100 years. (Samantha Jones for The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)

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