Politics & Government

Who Speaks What Languages in the Chesterfield Area?

An interactive map on the U.S. Census Bureau website will show you the concentration of 15 different language speakers in the region.

Ever wondered who can speak Spanish, or Russian, or German in the region? Or how common speakers of those languages are?

The U.S. Census Bureau has the answer, at least relating to 15 different languages ranging from Spanish (the most common, besides English, in this area) to Arabic (more heavily clustered in South City and South County).

According to the bureau's website, "the 2011 Language Mapper shows where people speaking specific languages other than English live, with dots representing how many people speak each of 15 different languages. For each language, the mapper shows the concentration of those who report that they speak English less than 'very well,' a measure of English proficiency."

The map shows data from the American Community Survey from 2007 to 2011.

We've embedded an interactive version of the map. Some of the tools fill much of the screen, and you can drag those screens to the side of the mini-window after selecting the language you want to highlight. You can also click and drag the map around inside the mini-window to see different parts of the region.

The maps we've highlighted on this article show the concentration of speakers of Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Chinese and Russian — and only the ones who said they speak English "less than very well." These seemed to be the languages with the heaviest concentrations in the St. Louis area among the 15 languages the Census tracks.

The interactive map will show you the concentration of ALL speakers of a language — including those who speak English well.


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