As we’ve shown in past posts, the metro area has seen a steady increase in its shares of Hispanic residents and also its foreign-born residents. The set of maps and explorer tool below consider one potential effect of growth in our non-native populations: speaking a language other than English in the home.

The map below symbolizes counties across the state according to the shares of residents who speak a language other than English at home, according to the American Community Survey’s 2013-2017 rolling averages. Statewide, Gwinnett County has the highest rates of residents who do not speak English in their homes, at 34.4 percent.

Speaking a foreign language at home, however, does not necessarily mean that residents can’t speak English. The map below shows statewide rates of residents who speak a language other than English at home and who do not speak English very well. Here, we see much lower percents of residents, with Stewart County at Georgia’s western border coming in at No. 1, with 18.1 percent of residents meeting this dual criteria. In Gwinnett County, only 15.1 percent of residents say they speak English less than very well.

Below, we can see that, across the state, many of the counties where we see higher shares of residents who do not speak English in their homes tend to see very high rates of these residents clustered together at the Census tract level. At the tract level, the highest rate of residents (93.5 percent) who do not speak English in the home are in DeKalb County Tract 212.04, near the Chamblee area, and the second highest (81.7)  is just northeast from there, in DeKalb County Census Tract 213.03.

The map below shows that areas where we see higher concentrations of residents who do not speak English in their home also tend to see higher rates of residents who do not speak English very well. In fact, the top tract for residents who do not speak English very well is also DeKalb County Tract 212.04 (78.5 percent). DeKalb County Tract 214.13, a little to the south, comes in a distant second at 57 percent.

The interactive tool below makes it possible to see all the linguistic data associated with Georgia Counties and Census tracts by turning different layers on or off, as well as using the slider tool in the middle-left of the map pane. Click on the map to reveal both county- and tract-level data about population and percentage point change in the area’s demographics. You can also click on the arrow at the bottom of the map pane to reveal a spreadsheet with the underlying data.

Source: ACS 2013-2017 rolling averages