| Table 6. | Mother Tongue of the Foreign-Born Population: 1910 to 1940, 1960, and 1970 |
|---|---|
| Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census Internet Release date: March 9, 1999 (See text for sources, definitions, and explanations) |
| Language | All races | White | ||||||||
| 1970* | 1960* | 1970* | 1960* | 1940* | 1930 | 1920 | 1910 | |||
| Total | 9,619,302 | 9,738,155 | 8,733,770 | 9,294,045 | 11,109,620 | 13,983,405 | 13,712,754 | 13,345,545 | ||
| Mother tongue data available | 9,523,155 | 9,360,179 | 8,651,756 | 8,962,711 | 10,861,120 | 13,941,172 | 13,705,588 | 13,229,273 | ||
| Indo-European languages | 8,452,466 | 8,685,423 | 7,991,298 | 8,415,894 | 10,408,000 | 13,481,337 | 13,216,190 | 12,841,870 | ||
| English and Celtic 1/ | 1,743,284 | 1,979,949 | 1,577,719 | 1,889,228 | 2,506,420 | 3,097,021 | 3,007,932 | 3,363,792 | ||
| English | 1,697,825 | 1,937,184 | 1,532,260 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Celtic 1/ | 45,459 | 42,765 | 45,459 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Germanic languages | 1,788,286 | 1,996,740 | 1,757,567 | 1,961,835 | 2,648,080 | 3,586,069 | 3,541,184 | 3,962,624 | ||
| German | 1,201,535 | 1,332,399 | 1,197,205 | 1,329,660 | 1,589,040 | 2,188,006 | 2,267,128 | 2,759,032 | ||
| Yiddish 2/ | 438,116 | 503,605 | 437,083 | 503,062 | 924,440 | 1,222,658 | 1,091,820 | 1,051,767 | ||
| Dutch | 127,834 | 130,482 | 123,279 | 129,113 | 102,700 | 133,142 | 136,540 | 126,045 | ||
| Flemish | 20,801 | 30,254 | (NA) | (NA) | 31,900 | 42,263 | 45,696 | 25,780 | ||
| Scandinavian languages | 283,991 | 466,515 | 283,260 | 463,361 | 778,200 | 1,142,645 | 1,194,933 | 1,272,150 | ||
| Swedish | 131,408 | 225,607 | 131,087 | 225,421 | 423,200 | 615,465 | 643,203 | 683,218 | ||
| Danish | 58,218 | 85,421 | 58,007 | 85,338 | 122,180 | 178,944 | 187,162 | 183,844 | ||
| Norwegian | 94,365 | 152,687 | 94,166 | 152,602 | 232,820 | 345,522 | 362,199 | 402,587 | ||
| Romance languages | 3,301,184 | 2,551,982 | 3,166,837 | 2,521,725 | 2,475,880 | 3,242,033 | 2,816,296 | 2,267,009 | ||
| Italian | 1,025,994 | 1,277,585 | 1,023,217 | 1,276,338 | 1,561,100 | 1,808,289 | 1,624,998 | 1,365,110 | ||
| French | 410,580 | 330,220 | 377,752 | 325,588 | 359,520 | 523,297 | 466,956 | 528,842 | ||
| Spanish 3/ | 1,696,240 | 813,429 | 1,602,322 | 793,134 | 428,360 | 743,286 | 556,111 | 258,131 | ||
| Portuguese | 140,299 | 91,592 | 137,618 | 88,680 | 83,780 | 110,197 | 105,895 | 72,649 | ||
| Romanian | 26,055 | 38,019 | 25,928 | 37,985 | 43,120 | 56,964 | 62,336 | 42,277 | ||
| Greek | 193,745 | 180,781 | 192,415 | 180,458 | 165,220 | 189,066 | 174,658 | 118,379 | ||
| Albanian | 7,528 | 7,297 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | 7,586 | 5,515 | 2,312 | ||
| Slavic languages | 921,330 | 1,301,520 | 918,652 | 1,300,342 | 1,671,540 | 1,992,533 | 2,255,798 | 1,690,703 | ||
| Russian 4/ | 149,277 | 276,834 | 148,644 | 276,362 | 356,940 | 315,721 | 392,049 | 57,926 | ||
| Ukranian | 96,635 | 106,974 | 96,294 | 106,864 | 35,540 | 68,485 | 55,672 | 25,131 | ||
| Czech | 70,703 | 91,711 | 70,564 | 91,633 | 159,640 | 201,138 | 234,564 | 228,738 | ||
| Polish | 419,912 | 581,936 | 419,006 | 581,591 | 801,680 | 965,899 | 1,077,392 | 943,781 | ||
| Slovak | 82,561 | 125,000 | 82,429 | 124,943 | 171,580 | 240,196 | 274,948 | 166,474 | ||
| Bulgarian | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | 12,128 | 12,853 | 18,341 | ||
| Serbo-Croatian 5/ | 83,064 | 86,957 | 82,652 | 86,860 | 70,600 | 109,923 | 125,844 | 105,669 | ||
| Slovene | 19,178 | 32,108 | 19,063 | 32,089 | 75,560 | 77,671 | 80,437 | 123,631 | ||
| Baltic languages | 95,188 | 99,043 | 94,848 | 98,945 | 122,660 | 172,643 | 182,227 | 140,963 | ||
| Lithuanian | 95,188 | 99,043 | 94,848 | 98,945 | 122,660 | 165,053 | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Lettish | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | 7,590 | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Armenian | 38,323 | 37,270 | (NA) | (NA) | 40,000 | 51,741 | 37,647 | 23,938 | ||
| Iranian languages | 17,329 | 7,503 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Persian | 15,986 | 6,936 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Indic languages | 22,173 | 3,561 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Hindi | 22,017 | 3,493 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Indo-European languages n.e.c. 6/ | 40,105 | 53,262 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Asian and Pacific Island languages | 556,445 | 306,624 | 8,988 | 9,107 | (NA) | 10,457 | 6,627 | 4,709 | ||
| Turkic languages | 16,646 | 14,063 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | 10,457 | 6,627 | 4,709 | ||
| Turkish | 16,646 | 14,063 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | 10,457 | 6,627 | 4,709 | ||
| Dravidian languages | 7,535 | 1,030 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Chinese | 190,260 | 89,609 | 4,734 | 3,892 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Thai (Laotian) | 11,695 | 1,666 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Japanese | 118,090 | 95,027 | 4,254 | 5,215 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Korean | 34,748 | 8,550 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Indonesian languages | 6,915 | 7,273 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Philippine languages | 152,498 | 73,500 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Tagalog | 152,498 | 73,500 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Polynesian languages | 4,956 | 1,372 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Asian and Pacific Island languages n.e.c. |
13,102 | 14,534 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Other languages | 325,074 | 360,019 | 273,500 | 314,745 | 389,240 | 446,026 | 481,543 | 382,048 | ||
| Uralic languages | 199,543 | 266,286 | 198,749 | 265,963 | 338,300 | 378,196 | 423,986 | 349,180 | ||
| Finnish | 38,290 | 53,168 | 38,069 | 53,094 | 97,080 | 124,994 | 132,543 | 119,948 | ||
| Hungarian | 161,253 | 213,118 | 160,680 | 212,869 | 241,220 | 250,393 | 290,419 | 229,094 | ||
| Caucasian | 421 | 192 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Basque | 2,169 | 1,580 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Semitic languages | 110,527 | 88,516 | 72,024 | 48,782 | 50,940 | 67,830 | 57,557 | 32,868 | ||
| Arabic | 73,657 | 49,908 | 72,024 | 48,782 | 50,940 | 67,830 | 57,557 | 32,868 | ||
| Hebrew 2/ | 36,112 | 38,346 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| African languages | 6,605 | 982 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Native American languages | 5,809 | 2,463 | 2,727 | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | (NA) | ||
| Mother tongue n.e.c. | 189,170 | 8,113 | 377,970 | 222,965 | 63,880 | 3,352 | 1,228 | 646 | ||
| Mother tongue data not available | 96,147 | 377,976 | 82,014 | 331,334 | 248,500 | 42,233 | 7,166 | 116,272 | ||
* Indicates sample data.
(NA) Not available.
| 1/ | For 1970, assumes that all individuals with Celtic mother tongue are White. |
| 2/ | For 1910-1940, Hebrew included with Yiddish. |
| 3/ | For White in 1960, the published estimate (794,714) includes Basque. The estimate here assumes that all individuals with Basque mother tongue (1,580) are White. |
| 4/ | For 1920, probably includes a "considerable proportion" of individuals of Yiddish mother tongue erroneously reported as of Russian mother tongue. See sources in text. |
| 5/ | For White in 1960, the published estimate (87,997) includes Dalmatian. The estimate here assumes that all individuals with Dalmatian mother tongue (1,137) are White. |
| 6/ | For 1970, includes 10,031 cases of Breton (which appears to be an unrealistically large number), and 10,208 cases of Other Balto-Slavonic languages. In 1960, the 535 cases of Breton were included with French. For 1960, includes 49,610 cases of Other Balto-Slavonic languages. |
Yes 
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