The Most Popular Languages Spoken in New Jersey
Vintage illustration of Greetings from New Jersey large letter vintage postcard, 1930s.
I don’t know about you, (how would I?) but I would love, love, love, to be able to speak multiple languages. It doesn’t have to be every language, because there are more than you think, but just maybe ten or twenty. I would really enjoy being able to communicate with anyone, anytime, anywhere. Before doing the research for this article, I would have guessed there are about a hundred or so languages spoken on Earth, and I would have been wrong.
A recent survey from the U.S. Census Bureau found that over three hundred and fifty different languages are spoken in the United States alone. That almost doesn’t seem possible. I probably can’t even name five percent of them. However, I’ve learned that each state is renowned for its vibrant diversity and is home to a multitude of people and cultures. So, what are the most popular languages, and which states are taking up the most language lessons in 2023?
The data was analyzed by EmpireStakes.com and found that Spanish is the number one spoken language behind English with over 40 million speakers nationally.
So let’s talk about New Jersey specifically. There are 1,368,165 Spanish speakers in New Jersey, and they’re tenth on the list for searches for language learning with nearly forty-one per thousand residents. We also have 12,417 people who speak French, and according to the census, 2,980,251 New Jerseyans speak a language other than English.
Massachusetts takes the lead in language school and lesson searches in the United States, with about fifty-three out of a thousand residents actively looking to learn a new language this year. Following closely behind is Utah with forty-eight, Washington at forty-seven, Oregon also at forty-seven, and Florida with nearly forty-five, completing the top five states in terms of language lesson searches so far in 2023.
Top 20 Songs Americans Wants To Learn How To Play The Most
Take a minute to think about your favorite songs.
Whether you can play an instrument or not, is there a song that you’ve always wanted to learn how to play? There’s definitely one or two that immediately come to mind because it’s either a classic or perhaps overplayed.
To answer that very question, Ukulele World conducted a new survey to discover which song is the most searched for in the United States overall. The team analyzed over 1,000 songs based on searches including how to play them on guitar, piano, ukulele, violin, and cello.
With a total of 48,960.8 average monthly searches, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” written by Harold Arlen comes out on top of the list. Second on the list is Vance Joy’s “Riptide” with both songs having the highest searches on how to play them with an ukulele.
It’s no surprise though that the traditional holiday song “Jingle Bells” is also among the top 5 coming in at third with the classical ballad (popular on all instruments) “Hallelujah” coming in fourth.
“It’s always inspiring to see people keen to learn how to play a song on an instrument and it’s fascinating to discover which songs they want to start with or are just curious to check out. Songs like ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, ‘Hallelujah’ and ‘Fur Elise’ are considered classics that it’s very common to start from, mostly for their popularity rather than their level of difficulty,” a spokesperson for Ukulele World commented on the findings.
We can’t promise you won’t have one of the songs highlighted here stuck in your head for the rest of the day. It’s now time to scroll below and check out the top 20 songs Americans want to learn how to play the most.
Joel Katz is the Morning Show Personality, Assistant Program Director, Podcast Host, Voiceover artist, audio producer, and Digital Content Writer for Magic 98.3. Joel has been working in New Jersey radio since college and started at Magic in 2002 as the Morning Show Host, “I can’t think of another place where I’d fit more perfectly; it’s just a great company with awesome people.” Joel is married to Kathleen, his elementary school sweetheart (they were each other’s first dates at age 9), shares a birthday with his oldest son, Ty, and has twins, Kiera and Liam. Joel runs at least 3.1 miles every day and enjoys playing basketball, doing laundry, saving his turn signal for when he really needs it, kissing dogs through a fence, using coasters, making that cool noise by rubbing his fingers on balloons, and chasing after ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.
