What Are the Most Commonly Spoken Languages in Colorado?

While it's a given that the majority of Coloradans speak English, it's also fairly easy to assume, based on the state's high concentration of residents from countries in Central and South America, that Spanish is the second-most commonly spoken language in the Centennial State.

Read More: True Meanings of 19 Colorado Town Names Translated to English |

While these assumptions are accurate, some of the other languages that round out the top ten most commonly spoken in Colorado may surprise you.

Colorado's Most Commonly Spoken Languages Besides English and Spanish

According to data from 2023, the third-most commonly spoken language in Colorado is Chinese, which includes Cantonese and Mandarin.

The fourth-most commonly spoken language in the state is German. With over 24,000 speakers, German made a big jump from its former spot at number nine on the list only ten years ago.

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The fifth-most commonly spoken language in Colorado, Vietnamese, is spoken by over 20,000 residents, a figure closely followed by the number of French speakers in the state, which is just over 19.9 thousand.

The seventh-most commonly spoken language in the state is one that many Coloradans likely aren't even familiar with - Amharic. Amharic is known as an Afro-Asiatic language and is often grouped with other languages in the area, including Somali.

With over 15,000 speakers, Russian is reportedly the eighth-most commonly spoken language in Colorado, followed by Korean with just over 14,000 speakers, and Arabic rounds out the top ten most commonly spoken languages in the state with over 12,000 speakers.

Check out the full report here.