Postsecondary Enrollments in the Most Commonly Taken Language Courses (Other than English), 1960–2013

With the exception of American Sign Language, the number of students enrolled in the most commonly studied languages fell from 2009 to 2013 (the most recent year with data). Prior to 2009, enrollments in Spanish had grown dramatically since the mid-1980s, while the number of students enrolled in some of the other commonly studied languages had been trending lower.

The sharp growth in the number of students taking Spanish since 1986 is slightly deceptive, however, since the total number of students enrolled in college has also increased over this period. As a result, the ratio of modern language enrollments per one hundred students has been rising and falling in a fairly narrow range (from 7.8 per 100 to 9.1 per 100).