Languages Spoken in Idaho: Map and County Data
Languages Spoken Across Idaho Counties
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011–2015 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, about 159,000 people age 5 and older in Idaho speak a language other than English at home, representing 10.6% of the state’s population age 5+. Spanish is the most spoken non-English language, with about 119,000 speakers, followed by German and Chinese.
Most Spoken Non-English Languages in Idaho
The most spoken non-English languages in Idaho are Spanish, German, and Chinese. Spanish is spoken at home by about 119,000 people, or roughly 7.9% of the state’s population age 5+.
Key Language Findings for Idaho
About 159,000 people in Idaho speak a language other than English at home, representing 10.6% of residents age 5 and older.
The most spoken non-English languages in Idaho are Spanish, German, and Chinese.
Spanish is the most spoken non-English language in Idaho, with about 119,000 speakers, representing roughly 7.9% of residents age 5 and older.
Canyon County has the largest Spanish-speaking population in Idaho, with about 30,300 speakers.
Ada County has the largest population speaking a language other than English at home, with more than 33,800 residents.
While Spanish is the most spoken non-English language statewide, another language leads in 2 of the 44 Idaho counties, including other Native North American languages in Nez Perce County.
How Language Use Varies Across Idaho Counties
Language patterns differ sharply by county. Spanish is the leading non-English language across most of Idaho, but county-level rankings show large local communities speaking Chinese, Serbo-Croatian, German, other Native North American languages, French, other Indo-European languages, Portuguese, and other languages.
Ada County has the largest number of residents speaking a language other than English at home, while Clark County has the highest share relative to its age-5+ population, at 40.4%. In Nez Perce County, other Native North American languages are the leading non-English language, showing how statewide rankings can differ substantially at the local level.
English Proficiency and Language Access in Idaho
Speaking a language other than English at home does not necessarily mean someone has limited English proficiency. Census table B16001 also separates language groups by whether residents report speaking English "very well" or less than "very well," providing additional context for organizations planning language access services. For a broader look at limited English proficiency across the country, explore Boostlingo's LEP State Map.
Plan Language Access Around the Communities You Serve
Boostlingo helps healthcare, government, education, legal, and business organizations connect people with interpreting and translation services across hundreds of languages.
Explore Interpreter ServicesSearch or sort the full county dataset to compare the share of residents speaking a language other than English at home and the six most spoken non-English languages in each county.
| County | % Other Language | Other-Language Speakers | #1 Language | #2 Language | #3 Language | #4 Language | #5 Language | #6 Language | Population Age 5+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clark County | 336 | Spanish 321 | African languages 10 | Other / unspecified 5 | — | — | — | 831 | |
| Jerome County | 5,700 | Spanish 5,563 | Portuguese 63 | Tagalog / Filipino 19 | French 17 | Vietnamese 14 | Other Pacific Island 11 | 20,522 | |
| Power County | 1,919 | Spanish 1,852 | Other Native North American 39 | German 18 | Portuguese 9 | Vietnamese 1 | — | 6,959 | |
| Minidoka County | 5,128 | Spanish 4,898 | Japanese 44 | Korean 44 | German 31 | Russian 30 | Other Pacific Island 21 | 18,655 | |
| Lincoln County | 1,283 | Spanish 1,220 | French 15 | Portuguese 15 | Japanese 13 | German 12 | Other Native North American 3 | 4,871 | |
| Gooding County | 3,446 | Spanish 3,239 | Other West Germanic 128 | Portuguese 30 | Other / unspecified 19 | German 18 | Italian 6 | 14,167 | |
| Owyhee County | 2,457 | Spanish 2,316 | Other Native North American 106 | Other / unspecified 10 | Japanese 7 | French 5 | Mon-Khmer / Cambodian 5 | 10,628 | |
| Cassia County | 4,589 | Spanish 4,335 | Other Slavic 66 | German 39 | Other West Germanic 28 | Tagalog / Filipino 21 | Other Native North American 18 | 21,329 | |
| Blaine County | 3,919 | Spanish 3,618 | Tagalog / Filipino 101 | German 78 | French 52 | Hindi 33 | Vietnamese 22 | 20,119 | |
| Canyon County | 33,258 | Spanish 30,346 | Other Indo-European 634 | German 355 | Hindi 254 | Chinese 231 | French 175 | 182,840 | |
| Teton County | 1,703 | Spanish 1,606 | German 28 | Italian 22 | Japanese 21 | French 18 | Other / unspecified 6 | 9,433 | |
| Bingham County | 7,083 | Spanish 6,145 | Other Native North American 472 | Tagalog / Filipino 69 | Laotian 53 | German 51 | Hindi 44 | 41,423 | |
| Elmore County | 3,590 | Spanish 2,576 | Chinese 310 | German 183 | Tagalog / Filipino 95 | Other / unspecified 66 | African languages 56 | 24,002 | |
| Twin Falls County | 10,061 | Spanish 7,277 | Serbo-Croatian 487 | Other Indic 339 | French 303 | Russian 257 | Tagalog / Filipino 208 | 73,743 | |
| Washington County | 1,291 | Spanish 1,186 | French 27 | German 24 | Vietnamese 14 | Thai 13 | Japanese 10 | 9,558 | |
| Camas County | 119 | Spanish 119 | — | — | — | — | — | 975 | |
| Payette County | 2,451 | Spanish 2,336 | Korean 34 | Other Native North American 18 | Other / unspecified 15 | Japanese 14 | French 11 | 21,139 | |
| Jefferson County | 2,534 | Spanish 2,239 | Other Native North American 88 | German 87 | Scandinavian 40 | Portuguese 37 | Chinese 14 | 24,289 | |
| Bonneville County | 10,149 | Spanish 8,626 | German 277 | French 219 | Portuguese 139 | Arabic 112 | Chinese 110 | 98,063 | |
| Madison County | 3,471 | Spanish 2,250 | Portuguese 467 | French 134 | Korean 90 | German 87 | Other Indo-European 82 | 34,072 | |
| Fremont County | 1,146 | Spanish 991 | German 48 | Portuguese 34 | Japanese 24 | Other Native North American 13 | French 8 | 12,028 | |
| Ada County | 33,866 | Spanish 15,918 | Chinese 1,933 | Serbo-Croatian 1,781 | German 1,287 | Other Asian 1,247 | French 1,172 | 390,758 | |
| Gem County | 1,273 | Spanish 1,041 | German 55 | Tagalog / Filipino 35 | Vietnamese 29 | Other Native North American 27 | Other / unspecified 27 | 15,816 | |
| Bannock County | 5,690 | Spanish 2,549 | Arabic 599 | Other Native North American 376 | Chinese 293 | Russian 291 | German 236 | 77,216 | |
| Valley County | 598 | Spanish 531 | French 46 | German 15 | Other Pacific Island 3 | Korean 2 | Other Native North American 1 | 9,277 | |
| Latah County | 2,239 | Spanish 794 | Chinese 485 | German 233 | African languages 109 | Arabic 105 | French 100 | 36,152 | |
| Franklin County | 706 | Spanish 666 | German 25 | French 6 | Chinese 4 | Portuguese 3 | Other Pacific Island 2 | 11,825 | |
| Butte County | 125 | Spanish 118 | German 5 | Russian 2 | — | — | — | 2,524 | |
| Clearwater County | 399 | Spanish 278 | Other Native North American 49 | German 25 | Japanese 9 | French 6 | Tagalog / Filipino 6 | 8,262 | |
| Oneida County | 159 | German 63 | Spanish 57 | African languages 17 | French 12 | Polish 5 | Italian 3 | 3,949 | |
| Adams County | 141 | Spanish 80 | German 18 | Other Slavic 9 | Other West Germanic 8 | Other Native North American 7 | French 5 | 3,713 | |
| Benewah County | 317 | Spanish 159 | Other Native North American 73 | French 22 | Other West Germanic 17 | German 12 | Hmong 9 | 8,559 | |
| Nez Perce County | 1,391 | Other Native North American 483 | Spanish 404 | Chinese 115 | German 108 | Other West Germanic 78 | French 47 | 37,409 | |
| Caribou County | 225 | Spanish 209 | German 13 | Scandinavian 3 | — | — | — | 6,290 | |
| Custer County | 137 | Spanish 101 | Russian 15 | Other Indo-European 13 | Armenian 4 | Polish 3 | Japanese 1 | 4,066 | |
| Boise County | 211 | Spanish 61 | French 35 | Italian 34 | Other Slavic 30 | Other Pacific Island 22 | German 9 | 6,663 | |
| Boundary County | 320 | Spanish 195 | Portuguese 33 | Scandinavian 32 | Other Native North American 15 | Italian 13 | Korean 13 | 10,368 | |
| Shoshone County | 340 | Spanish 158 | Chinese 61 | German 48 | Tagalog / Filipino 17 | Other / unspecified 16 | Other West Germanic 14 | 11,909 | |
| Kootenai County | 3,801 | Spanish 1,841 | German 381 | French 287 | Tagalog / Filipino 196 | Italian 159 | Other Slavic 124 | 136,184 | |
| Lewis County | 101 | Spanish 53 | Other Native North American 17 | Tagalog / Filipino 13 | German 4 | Thai 4 | Other Pacific Island 4 | 3,615 | |
| Lemhi County | 204 | Spanish 114 | African languages 27 | Korean 20 | German 15 | Japanese 12 | French 6 | 7,470 | |
| Bear Lake County | 136 | Spanish 68 | Chinese 44 | African languages 9 | Japanese 7 | French 4 | Other Pacific Island 3 | 5,517 | |
| Idaho County | 366 | Spanish 217 | Other West Germanic 55 | Other Native North American 45 | German 44 | Chinese 2 | Navajo 2 | 15,482 | |
| Bonner County | 866 | Spanish 426 | French 147 | German 106 | Thai 73 | Tagalog / Filipino 52 | Portuguese 15 | 39,044 |
About the Data
Data on this page comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2011–2015 5-Year Estimates, table B16001, Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over. Statewide and county estimates use the same Census table so the figures can be compared consistently across the page.
The estimates describe languages spoken at home among residents age 5 and older. Census estimates include margins of error, particularly for smaller counties and less common language groups.