A recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies concluded that the number of families in the United States that speaks a language other than English in the home is now over 20%.
By way of comparison, in 2000, the number was 18%, and in 1990, it was 14%. The fastest growing spoken languages in US households are Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Urdu. Urdu is the national language of Pakistan.
Conducting business in the United States can in many cases no longer be considered an English-only endeavor. Your customers now have a 20% chance of being a native speaker of another language.
Obviously, you’ll need to research your market and find out which languages are most common where your customers are, but the need for professional business translation no longer is a purely international enterprise.
In California, for example, over 45% of the population speaks a language other than English. California is followed by New Mexico (36%), Texas (35%), New Jersey, Nevada, and New York (30%), Florida and Arizona (27%).