CALIFORNIA DATA ON ELS & MULTILINGUALISM
Basic Facts—California Language Census: Fall 2019
English learners are a significant portion of California public school students:
• The 1,148,024 English learners constitute 18.63 percent of the total enrollment in California public schools.
• A total of 2,555,951 students (English Learners and Fluent English Proficient) speak a language other than English in their homes. This number represents about 41.5 percent of the state's public school enrollment.
• The majority of English learners (68.6 percent) are enrolled in the elementary grades, kindergarten through grade six. The rest (31.4 percent) are enrolled in the secondary grades, seven through twelve, and in the ungraded category.
English learners are a significant portion of California public school students:
• The 1,148,024 English learners constitute 18.63 percent of the total enrollment in California public schools.
• A total of 2,555,951 students (English Learners and Fluent English Proficient) speak a language other than English in their homes. This number represents about 41.5 percent of the state's public school enrollment.
• The majority of English learners (68.6 percent) are enrolled in the elementary grades, kindergarten through grade six. The rest (31.4 percent) are enrolled in the secondary grades, seven through twelve, and in the ungraded category.
Although English learner data are collected for 75 language groups, 93 percent speak one of the top ten languages in the state:
| LANGUAGE | PERCENT |
|---|---|
| Spanish | 81.44 |
| Vietnamese | 2.16% |
| Mandarin (Putonghua) | 1.93% |
| Arabic | 1.53% |
| Cantonese | 1.36% |
| Filipino (Pilipino or Tagalog) | 1.93% |
| Russian | 1.21% |
| Korean | 0.82% |
| Punjabi | 0.79% |
| Farsi (Persian) | 0.78% |
