more than half of young adults in los angeles can fluently speak a language other than english, despite the fact that the city's percentage of foreign born residents is decreasing fifty seven per cent of those aged 18 to 34, in la spoke a language other than english at home, beating out miami which had 55 per cent and san jose with 54 per cent roughly a quarter of the 'millenial' generation nationwide uses another language, according to the american community survey a map of young adults' ability to speak a language other than english uses dark red for counties where more than 40 per cent of 18 to 34 year olds communicate in a foreign language at home, and lighter shades of pink for smaller proportions of the population  roughly 60 per cent of la city residents age five and older speak a language other than english, with spanish the most popular language among them in addition to a large number of latino immigrants, los angeles also has large middle eastern, asian, middle eastern and eastern european communities however, the proportion of foreign born adults in los angeles has actually decreased 9 percentage points to a little less than a third since 1990, and a large number of the millenials with foreign language skills are thought to be bilingual the rise in bilingualism is probably caused by children continuing to speak their parents' tongues in addition to english, according to voice of america ucla professor raul hinojosa said that the children and grandchildren of immigrants historically stopped learning to speak the same language of their ancestors, but that there has been a 'sea change in the last ten years' california has seen a growing percentage of its young adults speaking foreign languages (bars in blue) since the 1980s the us as a whole (pink bars) has also seen its rate increase at a slower pace  hinojosa said that languages beyond spanish, second and third generation immigrants will be encouraged to keep knowledge of mandarin and other languages the american community survey collected data between 2009 and 2013 and found that 233 per cent of the population was between 18 and 34 years old, a fall from 30 per cent in 1980 data showed that the generation is less likely to be married and more likely to have gone to college than three decades ago, as well as more likely to speak a foreign language areas that showed the highest rates for speaking something other than english were near the us mexico border in california and texas new jersey was found to be the third most likely state for a young adult to speak a foreign language at home west virginia ranked last for the statistic with 363 per cent and middlesborough, kentucky, was the metro with the lowest percentage of young adults who could speak a foreign language with 0034 in contrast to los angeles, many us cities and states have seen significant increases in their foreign born populations the united states as a whole saw its estimated foreign born population decline 04 percentage points from 2000 to the american community survey us: 25 per cent  atlanta: 225  boston: 281  chicago: 331  cleveland: 116  dallas ft worth: 358  denver: 235  detroit: 142  houston: 426  los angeles: 576  miami: 555  minneapolis: 175  new york newark 429  philadelphia: 181  phoenix: 307  san diego 385  san francisco: 431  san jose: 542  seattle: 2604  st louis 815  washington dc: 301  california 4782  texas 3862  new jersey 3662  new mexico 3648  nevada 3446  west virginia 36  montana 54  mississippi 57  north dakota 57  maine 58  cities and states throughout the country have seen their percentage of foreign born residents increase above, a man in dearborn, michigan, attends an event urging arabic speakers to vote in 2004 
la english millennials non english miami san jose
fifty seven per cent of 18 to 34 year olds in la don't speak english at home . proportion of foreign born residents has actually decreased in the city . more than half of millennials speak non english language in miami, san jose . immigrant children and grandchildren keep knowledge of family's language 