Most Studied Foreign Languages in the U.S.

Spanish is the most commonly studied foreign language in the U.S., determined by the number of students enrolled in foreign language classes in colleges and universities. In 2009, over 864,000 students were taking Spanish courses, 5.1% more than in 2006. Arabic moved from the tenth most popular foreign language spot to number 8, with an increase in enrollment of 46.3% in just three years.

Language	Fall 2006 enrollments	% change from 2002	Fall 2009 enrollments	% change from 2006
1. Spanish	822,985	10.3%	864,986	5.1%
2. French	206,426	2.2	216,419	4.8
3. German	94,264	3.5	96,349	2.2
4. American Sign Language	78,829	29.7	91,763	16.4
5. Italian	78,368	22.6	80,752	3.0
6. Japanese	66,605	27.5	73,434	10.3
7. Chinese	51,582	51.0	60,976	18.2
8. Arabic	23,974	126.5	35,083	46.3
9. Latin	32,191	7.9	32,606	1.3
10. Russian	24,845	3.9	26,883	8.2

Source: Association of Departments of Foreign Languages at the Modern Language Association, Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2010.

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