2020 US Census Adds Seven New Language Options

NPR reports:

Speakers of Arabic — one of the fastest-growing languages in the U.S. — will have one fewer barrier to participating in the upcoming 2020 census.

For the first time, the federal government is planning to officially collect census responses in Arabic along with six other new language options for the head count, including French, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese and Tagalog.

These new additions join English, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese in a total of 13 languages — more than doubling the number of options that were available for the last count. Video and printed guides will also be available in 59 non-English languages, and there will be a video in American Sign Language, plus a printed guide in braille.