The most commonly spoken languages in Beltway households are, unsurprisingly, English and Spanish. But when you remove those two from the equation, you see a metropolitan area with nearly 30 other languages (or language categories) spoken.
Randy Smith, GIS specialist at Hood College, made the map using census tract-level data from the American Community Survey.
English and Spanish are included as “visible layers” in case you want to see how they fit into the equation.
The map shows similar trends as one released by Metro as part of its Language Assistance Plan. A little more than 11 percent of of the Metro service area speaks English “less than ‘very well'” and has a different patois in their households.
Smith breaks down popular languages by county with this visualization.
Rachel Kurzius