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SALT LAKE CITY — Slightly more people in Utah now speak a language other than English dating back to around 2010, though the numbers have held relatively steady in the period, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
At the same time, however, Spanish speakers — who easily account for the biggest share of those in Utah who speak a language other than English — are getting better and better at speaking English, according to the five-year American Community Survey estimates for 2018-2022, released late last week.
According to the new numbers, 84.5% of Utahns spoke only English at home in the five-year period through 2022, down slightly from 85.2% in the 2013-2017 period and 85.6% in the 2008-2012 period. On the flip side, the share of people speaking a language other than English at home — Spanish is most common — reached 15.5% of Utahns in the latest numbers, up from 14.8% in the 2013-2017 period and 14.4% in the 2008-2012 period.
Parallel to that, the foreign-born segment's share of Utah's overall population has held steady over the years — 8.4% in the 2018-2022 period and 8.3% in the 2013-2017 and 2008-2012 periods.
The varied numbers over the period are too close to draw any comparative conclusions without further study, according to Mallory Bateman, director of demographic research at the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Nevertheless, Bateman noted that the foreign-born population increased "in a significant" way in sheer numbers between the 2013-2017 and 2018-2022 periods — from 248,158 to 276,011, an increase of 27,853.
At the same time, she noted the increase in the share of naturalized citizens among the foreign-born population — 38% in the 2012-2017 period to 43% in the 2018-2022 time frame. The balance includes legal permanent residents, undocumented immigrants, visitors with visas and others.
What's more, delve deeper into the numbers and they show that Spanish speakers are getting better and better at speaking English. In the 2008-2012 period, 58.9% of Spanish speakers across Utah spoke English "very well" and that figure increased to 67.2% by the 2018-2022 time frame.
The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey is an ongoing initiative to keep tabs in a wide range of areas on the nation and the people in the country. The data helps determine how trillions of dollars in federal money are distributed each year, according to the Census Bureau, and the estimates for the 2018-2022 time frame were released last Thursday.
Here are some other takeaways from the new numbers:
- Salt Lake County had a larger share of people than the state as a whole who spoke a language at home other than English in the 2018-2022 period, 21.1% of residents, according to the new numbers. That compares to 15.5% in Utah as a whole.
- Weber County had a larger share of Spanish speakers than the state as a whole. Of those who spoke another language at home aside from English, 80.9% spoke Spanish compared to 67.4% in the state as a whole. At the same time, Spanish speakers in Weber County gained notably in their ability to speak English, more than the state as a whole, anyway. Those speaking English "very well" increased from 52.9% of the total in the 2008-2012 time frame to 71.5% in the 2018-2022 period.
- Across Utah, the most common language spoken at home after English and Spanish was Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese, according to a blog Monday on the numbers by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Chinese speakers accounted for 3.4% of those who spoke a foreign language at home, far behind the 67.4% share among Spanish speakers.
- With regard to the foreign-born population in Utah, more than 70% in the segment aged 16 or older worked in the 2018-2022 time frame compared to 66.4% among U.S.-born Utahns, according to the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. More than 70% of foreign-born residents here entered the United States before 2010.
Here are the breakdowns in five counties along and around the Wasatch Front in the 2018-2022 time frame who spoke only English at home and those who spoke another language:
- Salt Lake County, 78.9% and 21.1%, respectively.
- Summit County, 84.7% and 15.3%.
- Utah County, 84.9% and 15.1%.
- Weber County, 85.6% and 14.4%.
- Tooele County, 89.5% and 10.5%.
- Davis County, 89.9% and 10.1%.
