This interactive feature provides data describing the limited English proficient (LEP) population in 89 metropolitan areas for which data are available. The data are based on tabulations of microdata from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2012 American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS asks respondents how well they speak English—very well, well, not well, or not at all. For the purposes of this report, anything less than very well qualifies a person as limited English proficient.
To get started, select a metro area by clicking on the "Change Location" button. To view an overview for the U.S., click here.
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Change, 2000 to 2012
More detail The top languages spoken are: {{languageSpecifics}}
Labor market participation of the working age LEP population
Median annual earnings of the employed working age LEP population
Top industries and occupations employing the largest shares of the working age LEP population
Access to the ACS data underlying this analysis was provided by the Minnesota Population Center, through its Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) website.
Brookings is a non-profit institution and the charts above were created using Highsoft software under a non-commercial license, the terms of which can be found here. Please note that Highsoft software is not free for commercial use.