Culture··12 min
US Multilingual Percentages Don't Mean What You Think
The most-quoted number about American bilingualism comes from a single 2001 Gallup landline poll that has never been updated. The real US number, 21.7% per the Census American Community Survey, was built for voting-rights compliance, not language measurement. The country sits on a bilingual barbell and the barbell is slowly flattening.
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