Translated's Research Center

United States

North America

To which language should you translate to localize in the United States?

What we know from our community

“English is the most common language spoken in the United States, with approximately 239 million speakers. However, there are actually between 350 and 430 languages spoken there, making it one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. The federal government has never declared an official language, but some state governments have adopted English as their official language, with varying policies for other languages. There are roughly 30 different major dialects in America; for example, people living in the southwest will not refer to a carbonated beverage using the same word as those from the south or east coast. Americans also have drastically different accents depending on which part of the country they come from.
After English, Spanish is spoken by over 40 million people in the USA, with some regions carrying a high percentage of this number: just consider, 42% of the population in Los Angeles are native Spanish speakers. The United States is a vast territory abounding with opportunities for companies abroad. They should make sure to localize their content for specific areas, considering other languages depending on these targets.”

LANGUAGE INSIGHT

Main language

American English (78%; 261.23 mln)

Actual languages

American English (78%; 261.23 mln), Spanish (13.3%; 44.54 mln), other (8.7%; 29.13 mln)

What the top 150 best localized websites in the world do in the United States

(Top 150 websites listed in the Global by Design ranking – published annually by Byte Level Research, this report provides a list of globally localized websites, showcasing best practices and emerging trends in their globalization)

  • 113/150 localize by translating into English
  • 25/150 localize by translating into both English and Spanish
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Spanish, Simplified Chines and Traditional Chinese
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Spanish and Simplified Chinese
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, German, Hebrew, Korean and Portuguese
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, German, Portuguese, French, Polish, Italian, Japanese, Czech, Hungarian, Dutch and Swedish
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into both English and American Sign Language
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, American Sign Language, Navajo Language, Hawaiian Language, Western Apache Language and Powhatan Language
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Navajo Language, Hawaiian Language and Pennsylvania German
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into both English, Spanish, Traditional Chinese and Korean
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Korean, Portuguese, French, Russian, Italian and Japanese
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Simplified Chinese and French
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, German, Korean, Portuguese, French, Polish, Russian, Italian and Japanese
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into both English, Spanish, Portuguese and French
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into both English, Spanish and Korean
  • Localization available 3M
  • Localization available ABB
  • Localization available Accenture
  • Localization available Adidas
  • Localization available Adobe
  • Localization available Airbnb
  • Localization available Aldi
  • Localization available Amazon
  • Localization available American Airlines
  • Localization available American Express
  • Localization available Apple
  • Localization available Audi
  • Localization available Autodesk
  • Localization available Avis
  • Localization available Bayer
  • Localization available BMW
  • Localization available Booking.com
  • Localization available Bosch
  • Localization available British Airways
  • Localization available Bumble
  • Localization available Burberry
  • Localization available BYD
  • Localization available Canon
  • Localization available Capgemini
  • Localization available Cartier
  • Localization available Caterpillar
  • Localization available Chevrolet
  • Localization available Cisco Systems
  • Localization available Citibank
  • Localization available Coca-Cola
  • Localization available Costco
  • Localization available Dell
  • Localization available Deloitte
  • Localization available Delta
  • Localization available DHL
  • Localization available Disney+
  • Localization available Dyson
  • Localization available eBay
  • Localization available Eli Lilly
  • Localization available Emirates
  • Localization available Ernst & Young
  • Localization available Facebook
  • Localization available FedEx
  • Localization available Ford
  • Localization available Four Seasons
  • Localization available Fujifilm
  • Localization available GE
  • Localization available Gillette
  • Localization available GoDaddy
  • Localization available Google
  • Localization available Gucci
  • Localization available Haier
  • Localization available Heineken
  • Localization available Hermès
  • Localization available Hertz
  • Localization available Hilton
  • Localization available Hisense
  • Localization available Hitachi
  • Localization available Honda
  • Localization available Hotels.com
  • Localization available HP
  • Localization available HP Enterprise
  • Localization available HSBC
  • Localization available Huawei
  • Localization available Hyatt
  • Localization available Hyundai
  • Localization available IBM
  • Localization available IKEA
  • Localization available Intel
  • Localization available InterContinental Hotels
  • Localization available J&J
  • Localization available Jack Daniel's
  • Localization available Jehovah’s Witnesses
  • Localization available John Deere
  • Localization available Kellogg's
  • Localization available Kia
  • Localization available KPMG
  • Localization available LOréal
  • Localization available Land Rover
  • Localization available LEGO
  • Localization available Lenovo
  • Localization available Lexus
  • Localization available LG
  • Localization available Louis Vuitton
  • Localization available Lululemon
  • Localization available LUSH
  • Localization available Marriott
  • Localization available MasterCard
  • Localization available McDonald's
  • Localization available Mercedes-Benz
  • Localization available Merck
  • Localization available Microsoft
  • Localization available Mitsubishi Electric
  • Localization available Nestlé
  • Localization available Netflix
  • Localization available Nike
  • Localization available Nikon
  • Localization available Nintendo
  • Localization available Nio
  • Localization available Nissan
  • Localization available NIVEA
  • Localization available Oracle
  • Localization available Pampers
  • Localization available Panasonic
  • Localization available PayPal
  • Localization available Pepsi
  • Localization available Pfizer
  • Localization available Philips
  • Localization available Pitney Bowes
  • Localization available Porsche
  • Localization available Procter & Gamble
  • Localization available PWC
  • Localization available Revolut
  • Localization available Rolex
  • Localization available Royal Caribbean
  • Localization available Salesforce
  • Localization available Samsung
  • Localization available Sanofi
  • Localization available SAP
  • Localization available Sephora
  • Localization available Shopify
  • Localization available Siemens
  • Localization available Sony
  • Localization available Spotify
  • Localization available Starbucks
  • Localization available Steelcase
  • Localization available Stripe
  • Localization available Subaru
  • Localization available Tesla
  • Localization available The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  • Localization available Tiffany
  • Localization available Tinder
  • Localization available Toshiba
  • Localization available Toyota
  • Localization available TripAdvisor
  • Localization available Uber
  • Localization available United Airlines
  • Localization available UPS
  • Localization available Visa
  • Localization available Volkswagen
  • Localization available Volvo Cars
  • Localization available Vrbo
  • Localization available Walmart
  • Localization available Western Union
  • Localization available Wikipedia
  • Localization available Wise
  • Localization available WordPress
  • Localization available Workday
  • Localization available Xerox
  • Localization available Xiaomi (Mi)
  • Localization available Zara
  • Localization available Zoom
Available in

If you need others information, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data

Overview


Language

Main language
American English (78%)

Other languages
Spanish (13.3%), other (8.7%)

Indigenous languages
Navajo, Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee, Dakota, Lakota, Western Apache, Keres, Hopi, Zuni, Kiowa, Ojibwe, O’odham, Miwuk

T-index
33.4%

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for
online sales.

Demography

Capital: Washington D.C.
Currency: US dollar
Population: 334.91 million 
Population density: 36/km2

Economy

GDP: 27.36 trillion USD (2023)
GDP per capita: 81,695.2 USD ‎(2023) ‎
Exports: $1.95 trillion (2022)

Statistics

Internet users: 97.1% penetration, 331.1 million
Unemployment rate: 3.6% (2023)
Urbanisation: 83.4% (2023)
Literacy: 99% (2023)

Conventions

Numbering system
Arabic numerals with dot as decimal separator

Date format: mm-dd-yyyy
Time: 12h time system (a.m./p.m.)
Country code: 001

Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal/Census Data Of USA

Facts and data


Economy

Imports
$3.12 trillion (2022). Crude Petroleum ($199B), Cars ($159B), Broadcasting Equipment ($116B), Computers($108B), and Packaged Medicaments ($91.3B), importing mostly from China ($551B), Canada ($438B), Mexico ($421B), Germany ($153B), and Japan ($137B).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 93% have an account with a financial institution
• 65.6% have a credit card
• 27% have a mobile money account
• 77% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
It is very easy to conduct business (rated 84.0 out of 100) ranked 6th out of 44 countries among OECD high income ranked 6th out of 190 countries worldwide (2019, World Bank).

Exports
$1.95 trillion (2022). Refined Petroleum($138B), Crude Petroleum ($118B), Petroleum Gas ($116B), Cars ($57.5B), and Integrated Circuits ($49.8B), exporting mostly to Canada ($308B), Mexico ($294B), China ($151B), Japan ($79.5B), and United Kingdom ($75.4B).

Main local online stores
Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Apple.com, Homedepot.com, Bestbuy.com, Target.com, Macys.com, Wayfair.com, Costco.com, Kohis.com.

Economic freedom
‘Mostly free’ (70.1 out of 100) ranked 2nd out of 2 Northern American countries ranked 25th out of 186 countries worldwide (2019, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Global Innovation Index

Ranked 1st out of 2 Northern American countries, 3rd out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal


Service Imports (2018)
Service Exports (2018)

Source: OEC

Trade balance of goods from 2013 to 2023

Source: Statista

Historical Data Trade Imports (2018)

The following section uses historical trade data imports from partners of United States.

Historical Data Trade Exports (2018)

The following section uses historical trade data exports from partners of United States.

Source: OEC

The Top Export Opportunities for United States by Relatedness

Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product by showing only products that United States is not specialized in.

United States' Most Complex Exports

The Product Complexity Index (PCI) measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters.

Source: OEC

United States' Most Specialized Products

Specialization is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), an index that takes the ratio between United States observed and expected exports in each product.

Source: OEC

Perception of products made in selected countries in 2017

Source: Statista

Which attributes do you associate with products made in USA?

Source: Statista

Market Growth Imports (2018)

This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start importing that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.

Market Growth Exports (2018)

This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start exporting that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.

Source: OEC

Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)

Source: WorldBank

Leading payment methods in the United States in 2018

Source: Worldpay

Most popular online stores in the United States in 2018, by e-commerce net sales

(in million U.S. dollar)

Source: ecommerceDB.com

Most popular mobile shopping apps in the United States as of September 2019, by reach

Source: Veroanalytics

Conversion rate of online shopping in the United States in 2019, by device

Source: Worldpay

Share of mobile device owners in the United States who have performed select mobile shopping activities via app in the past month as of December 2019

Source: Monetate


T-index

T-index

Reach most of the online purchasing power

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.

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Media

Media language English

Information channels
The US has the most highly-developed mass media in the world. Its dramas, comedies, soap operas, animations, music videos and films have a global audience and are part of the staple fare of broadcasters worldwide.
TV is America’s most popular medium. ABC, CBS and NBC held sector leadership for decades until the mass take-up of cable and satellite and the arrival of the Fox network. Fox News Channel is the dominant US cable news network. But viewing habits are changing and the proportion of consumed content accounted for by live broadcast TV is falling. The US leads the world in the adoption of over-the-top (OTT) video-on-demand, delivered by broadband internet.
“The US has a free, diverse, and constitutionally protected press,” says Washington-based Freedom House (2019). The NGO says news coverage has become more polarised, with some outlets and well-known commentators “providing a consistently right- or left-leaning perspective”.

Public Broadcasting

Public broadcasting is partly government-funded, but also supported by private grants. Universities and colleges operate outlets. National Public Radio (NPR) – with hundreds of affiliate stations – offers news, debate and music without advertising. Public TV services operated by PBS have a mission to provide “quality” and educational programming. The government sponsors TV, radio and online outlets aimed at audiences outside the US, including in the former Soviet bloc, the Middle East and Asia, and Cuba. There are more than 1,000 daily newspapers in the US, most of them with a local or regional readership, but they have been hit by online competition.

News agency

Associated Press
Bloomberg Business News
UPI

The press

USA Today – national daily
The Wall Street Journal – business daily
The Christian Science Monitor – church-owned daily
Los Angeles Times – daily
The Washington Post – daily
The Boston Globe – daily
New York Post – daily
The New York Times – daily
The Philadelphia Inquirer – daily
The Baltimore Sun – daily
Chicago Tribune – daily
Newsweek – news weekly
Time – news weekly
US News & World Report – news weekly

Television

ABC – major commercial network
CBS – major commercial network
NBC – major commercial network
Fox – major commercial network
CNN – pioneer of 24-hour rolling TV news, operates domestic and international streams
MTV – pioneer of music television
HBO (Home Box Office) – pay TV network; originator of some of American TV’s most critically–acclaimed programmes
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) – public TV, serves some 350 non-commercial member stations

Radio

NPR (National Public Radio) – non-commercial network of member stations; news, information and cultural programmes
iHeart Media – America’s largest commercial radio operator, owns more than 1,200 stations
Entercom – major commercial operator
Cumulus Media – major commercial operator

External broadcasting

Voice of America – government-funded, programmes for global audiences in many languages
Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty 
– government-funded, targets eastern Europe, former Soviet Union and the Caucasus in local languages
Radio Free Asia 
– government funded, targets China, North Korea and South East Asia
Al-Hurra 
– government-funded, satellite TV for Middle East
Radio Sawa 
– government-funded, Arabic-language radio for Middle East
Radio Farda 
– government-funded, Persian-language radio
Radio and TV Marti 
– government-funded services for Cuba


Media data source: BBC


Internet Data

Internet users
97.1% penetration, 331.1 million.

Share of web traffic by device
41.39% mobile phones, 55.99% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.45% tablet devices, 0.16% others.

Average speed of mobile Internet connection
106.28  Mbps

Average speed of fixed Internet connection
219.71 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 116.2%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 99.9%

Most popular web search engines
Google (86.9%), Bing (8.09%),Yahoo (2.48%), Duckduckgo (1.99%), Yandex (0.22%), AOL (0.09%).

Most used social media
Facebook (62.9%), Instagram (11.75%), YouTube (8.66%), Pinterest (7.66%),Twitter (7.51%), Reddit (1.14%).

Data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter


Social statistics

Life expectancy
77 yrs (2022)

CO2 emissions
13 metric tons per capita (2020)

Corruption perceptions Index
USA scored 69 out of 100, ranked 24th out of 180 countries worldwide.

Glass Ceiling Index
58.2 out 100, ranked 18th out of 29 countries.

The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.

Current health expenditure
16.57% of GDP (2022)

Education expenditure
90% of total expenditure in public institutions (2020).

World Happiness Index
USA ranked 16 out of 146 countries, with a score of 6.977.

Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/US Census Bureau/Data Reportal

Number of U.S. population in 2019, by educational attainment

(population in 1,000s)

Source: US census Bureau

Household food insecurity

Source: Urban Institute

Average cost to attend university per year in the United States from the academic year 2000/1 to 2017/18

(in U.S. dollar)

Source: Institute for College Access & Success

Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF

Where do American students have the highest debt?

Average students debt per borrower in selected U.S. states in the first decade of the 20th century

Source: US Department of Education

The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com


Country Curiosities


Though English is the de facto national language in the U.S., there’s no official language at the federal level, making it the most populous country without one—a unique status rooted in the nation’s values of inclusion and diversity. This openness has fostered a vibrant linguistic landscape, with over 350 languages spoken across the country, from Spanish and Chinese to indigenous languages like Navajo and Hawaiian. Some states, such as Hawaii, recognize additional languages to honor local heritage, while others have made English official through state laws.

Additionally…

  • The U.S. leads the world economy with a $25.5 trillion GDP, contributing about 24% of global output.
  • American tech giants like Apple and Google drive the tech industry with $2 trillion in GDP and $400 billion in tech exports.
  • The U.S. holds the largest AI market globally, valued at $50.16 billion in 2024.
  • Approximately 58 million Americans use language learning apps, increasing national multilingualism.
  • U.S. private consumption, 68% of GDP, makes Americans leading global consumers in tech, entertainment, and luxury goods.
  • Alaska supports cultural preservation by recognizing 20 Indigenous languages alongside English.
  • The U.S. government invests around $3.3 billion annually in AI research and development.
  • Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee daily, making the U.S. a top coffee consumer worldwide.
  • With over 35,000 museums, the U.S. boasts the most cultural institutions globally.

Languages research


Most common languages spoken a home other than English or Spanish

Legend

  • German

  • Vietnamese

  • Chinese

  • Navajo

  • Korean

  • Nepal

  • Dakota/Lakota/Nakota/Sioux

  • Somali

  • Arabic

  • French

  • Tagalog

  • Polish

  • Hmong

  • Pennsylvania Dutch

  • Portuguese

  • Haitian Creole

  • Gujarati

  • Aleut/Eskimo

  • Ilocano


Most commonly spoken languages other than English

Legend

  • Spanish

  • German

  • French

  • Yupik

  • Tagalog


The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com


Photo credit: Nirmal Rajendharkumar, Unsplash