United States | Ethnologue Free

Summary

The United States is a country in the Americas that is home to 197 living indigenous languages. One of these, Hawaiian, is an official language in part of the country. In addition, 34 non-indigenous languages are established within the country. One of these, English, is the official language of the country. The literacy rate in the United States is 99%. In formal education, 3 indigenous languages are used as languages of instruction.

Population

Geography
Size
332,915,000
total✵
197
languages✵
99% (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina 2018)
literate✵
Vitality
1. Institutional
  3
2. Stable
  3
3. Endangered
  193
4. Extinct
  49
Details
This graph shows the profile of languages in United States with respect to their level of language vitality.
Institutional — The language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community.
Stable — The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
Endangered — It is no longer the norm that children learn and use this language.
Extinct - The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language.
These four summary levels have been derived by grouping levels in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which is the more fine-grained scale that Ethnologue uses to assess the status of every language in terms of development versus endangerment; see Language Status for a description of the levels of that scale. See also the pages on Development and Endangerment for more discussion.

Languages

esiNorth Alaskan Inupiatun

nsqNorthern Sierra Miwok

strNorthern Straits Salish

twfNorthern Tiwa

eskNorthwest Alaska Inupiatun

emsPacific Gulf Yupik

pwiPatwin

pawPawnee

pdcPennsylvania German

depPidgin Delaware

piePiro

psyPiscataway

psdPlains Indian Sign Language

essSaint Lawrence Island Yupik

slnSalinan

gulSea Island English Creole

Families

Language Policy Conventions

ICCPR (1992)
UNDRIP (2011)

Contributions

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Summary

Population

Geography

Size

Vitality

Languages

Families

Language Policy Conventions

Contributions

Editorial Action