The Korea Herald

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1.1 mil. U.S. residents use Korean language at home, report says

By 윤민식

Published : Sept. 12, 2013 - 12:06

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A total of 1.1 million people in the United States spoke Korean at home in 2011, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Wednesday.

Korean was among eight languages used by at least 1 million people, along with English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog (Philippines), Vietnamese, French and German.

The number of Korean speakers in the U.S. grew by 327 percent from 1980 to 2010, the bureau said in the American Community Survey.

In 1980, fewer than 300,000 people spoke Korean.

Only 45 percent of Korean speakers in the U.S. spoke English "very well" in 2011, while 80 percent or more of French and German speakers spoke English "very well," it showed.

Korean speakers resided largely in the Los Angeles (254,000), New York (170,000) and Washington (65,000) metro areas, showed the accompanying 2011 Language Mapper. (Yonhap News)