It is valuable to track language diversity in Missouri to help inform the public, businesses, agencies, organizations, and other stakeholders of the unique language diversity across the state.
Local, state, tribal, and federal agencies use language data to plan government programs for adults and children who do not speak English well. These data are also used to ensure that information about public health, law, regulations, voting, and safety is communicated in languages that community members understand. The language data series also helps determine English Language Proficiency for translation requirements. Data in this report and dashboard is from the American Community Survey 5-Year estimates for 2018-2022.
Although the population in Missouri speaks primarily English, this interactive dashboard can be used to further explore other languages spoken in the state. Measures such as the percentage of the population who speak Spanish; those with limited English proficiency; and those who speak a language other than English are shown. Data for a specific county can be viewed by clicking on that county in the map.
A pdf brief of Missouri Language Diversity is also available here