The questions asked in Census Bureau’s language survey are straightforward: Does the person speak a language other than English at home? If yes, which language, and, how well do they speak English?
The responses to the last question have helped inform national policy across multiple agencies.
Spanish is the fastest-growing language in Minnesota. The number of Spanish speakers saw a tenfold increase in the past three decades.
Somali and Hmong are the second- and third-fastest growing non-English languages.
Some languages that used to be widely spoken in Minnesota have declined.
More than 47,000 Minnesotans spoke German in the 1980s. The number dropped to 16,000 in 2023.
Beginning with the 1980 Census, the bureau has surveyed what languages are spoken at home. The bureau then codes and categorizes the responses into individual languages or language groups.
1980 Census questionnaire. U.S. Census Bureau
The Census Bureau codes over 1,300 languages and language groups. In order to present this data in a more manageable way, it folds less-spoken languages into broader linguistic categories in its data releases.
As the country’s language demographic shifts, the Census Bureau periodically adjusts its categorization methods to reflect that change.
For example, Hindi was grouped into a larger language category in 1980. As the number of Hindi speakers grew in the U.S., it was later recognized as its own category.
In Minnesota, these numbers do more than quantifying Minnesota’s linguistic diversity or understanding immigration patterns. It shapes state policy.
State demographer Susan Brower’s office helps multiple state agencies interpret this data in order to determine which language groups require translation and interpretation services, including for voter guides, information for people starting a business, or hospitals serving linguistic minority communities.
“These data are used to help understand what the largest language communities are and to give more specificity around the language so that they can provide better information on the kind of dialect spoken,” said Brower.
The state uses a mix of census data as well as data gathered by the Minnesota Department of Education on languages spoken by K-12 students at home.
It can also often highlight patterns of immigration into the state, even if imperfectly, Brower told Sahan Journal.
“We’ve seen large increases in many groups as we’ve seen changes in immigration that have driven those changes in language,” she said, adding that the data is an indication at best. “It’s much tougher to use language alone to track newer immigration, but sometimes we use it as kind of a context clue to define larger communities in the absence of other information.”
The census data has also helped inform a recent statute in Minnesota which mandates that if at least 3% of a census tract reports speaking English “less than very well,” it will be designated a language minority district and translation services have to be made available. If it is 20% or more, an interpreter, too, has to be made available upon request of at least 10 voters.
In Minnesota, over 30 counties have language minority districts, according to latest data. For example, Ward 6 in Minneapolis — Twin Cities’ largest East African community and center of its Native American community — has 20% or more people who reported low English proficiency, as does St. Paul’s Ward 5, which has a high number of Hmong speakers.
State elections Director Paul Linnell said that this data “sets the bar for what census tracts are going to be captured and covered by the requirements in that statute.”
While the statute is recent, Linnell said that the state has “a long tradition of making materials available for voters that might speak other languages,” referring to the voter guides available on the state’s website for the top languages spoken in Minnesota: Spanish, Hmong, Somali, Vietnamese, Russian, Chinese, Lao, Oromo, Khmer, Amharic and Karen.
“The languages have changed over time, but there’s long been a recognition that even though people might be able to speak English, they might prefer technical documents in their native language,” said Cassondra Knudson, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office, adding that translated materials are also available for those starting new businesses.
The findings of the census language data also informed a separate statute that required the founding of the Enterprise Translations Office in 2023 under the Department of Administration to standardize the translations across about 25 state executive agencies, including the Department of Health, Public Safety, and Human Services. The office has two employees each for Spanish, Hmong, and Somali languages.
“My philosophy is that a government that speaks one language is no government at all,” said Director Adam Taha. “If you’re communicating in English only, I don’t care how accessible it is or how great it is, it’s exclusionary.”
The office also received $250,000 from the state in fiscal year 2023 to reimburse state agencies for translation services from independent vendors when it is unable to provide them. That budget has now been slashed to $100,000 a year, although Taha says that the office won’t feel the impact for a couple of years as it has outstanding funds from previous years. The office is slated to release statewide translation standards and guidelines at the end of the year.
Beyond the state department and agencies, the census data is also used by community organizations as well as linguistic researchers like Claire Halpert, an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Minnesota. Halpert’s work focuses on language documentation, maintenance, revitalization and reclamation, working with linguistic minorities in the state.
With the help of the data, her department has created an Ojibwe People’s Dictionary and is building a searchable database for Hmong language. “When people have access to their heritage language, they have better social outcomes,” said Halpert.
Correction: The name of the Enterprise Translations Office has been updated in this article as well as the term for Hmong language speakers in a graphic.
