Population in Limited English Households
This indicator reports the percentage of the population aged 5 and older living in Limited English speaking households. A limited English speaking household is one in which no household member 14 years old and over speaks only English at home, or no household member speaks a language other than English at home and speaks English “very well”. This indicator is significant as it identifies households and populations that may need English-language assistance.
Source
Source Description
The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely social, economic, housing, and demographic data every year. The ACS has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses, with survey information collected nearly every day of the year. Data are pooled across a calendar year to produce estimates for that year. As a result, ACS estimates reflect data that have been collected over a period of time rather than for a single point in time as in the decennial census, which is conducted every 10 years and provides population counts as of April 1. The Census Bureau combines 5 consecutive years of ACS data to produce estimates for geographic areas with fewer than 65,000 residents. These 5-year estimates represent data collected over a period of 60 months. Because the ACS is based on a sample, rather than all housing units and people, ACS estimates have a degree of uncertainty associated with them, called sampling error. In general, the larger the sample, the smaller the level of sampling error. Data users should be careful in drawing conclusions about small differences between two ACS estimates because they may not be statistically different.
For more information about this source, including data collection methodology and definitions, refer to the American Community Survey data user’s website.
Methodology
Population counts for population by language proficiency and total area population data are acquired from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Data represent estimates for the 5-year period 2019-2023. Mapped data are summarized to 2023 census tract boundaries. Persons are considered to have limited English proficiency they indicated that they spoke a language other than English, and if they spoke English less than “very well”. Persons are considered to live in linguistically isolated households if no one aged 14 and over in the households speaks English only or speaks a language other than English at home and speaks English “very well” Area demographic statistics are measured as a percentage of the total population aged 5+ based on the following formula:
For more information on the data reported in the American Community Survey, please see the complete American Community Survey 2023 Subject Definitions.
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