On January 30, 2026, the US city of San Francisco released its 2026 Language Access Compliance Summary Report. The report, produced by the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA), includes data collected during the 2024-2025 fiscal year (FY) from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025.
While summarizing year-on-year changes in language services provided by city departments, the report also links to an interactive dashboard of the city’s language services data going back to FY 2014-2015.
The report opens by highlighting San Francisco’s Language Access Ordinance (LAO), which requires public-facing city departments to provide language services in “languages spoken by a Substantial Number of LEP Persons.” The report also discusses recent updates to the city’s language access requirements.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHTRiding the AI shockwave
Download the report
PARTNER SPOTLIGHTStill translating the old way?
Most notably, a June 2024 amendment to the LAO reduced the requirements for a given speaker community to be guaranteed language services and increased the amount of material city departments are required to translate.
Previously, for language services to be required in a given language, it had to be spoken by 10,000 limited English proficient (LEP) San Francisco residents. The 2024 amendment reduced that number to 6,000 residents, allowing Vietnamese to join Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino on the list of required languages.
“Record Highs”…or Are They?
At face value, the report shows a marked increase in language services provided by city departments. For example, in FY 2024-2025, city departments reported about 1.75 million “LEP client interactions,” which the report describes as the “total number of LEP individuals who used the department’s services.”
According to the report, this represents an 11% year-on-year increase and a 36% increase compared to a five-year average. However, the report acknowledges that departments choose between three different methods for recording this data, and the text does not clarify whether individual departments used the same method year to year.
PARTNER SPOTLIGHTGo global with AI localization
Also, city departments reported “record high” usage for both in-person interpreting and over-the-phone (OTP) interpreting. The report states that call volumes for OTP interpreting increased by 400% year-on-year, and by 205% relative to a five-year average. While instances of in-person interpreting, reported as “in-person language services,” increased by 228% year-on-year and 170% versus a five-year average.
However, the report acknowledges that these massive increases are potentially the result of improved definitions in the June 2024 amendment to the LAO and changes to the OCEIA’s instructions for data collection.
Previously, city departments were reporting the “numbers of telephonic interpretations conducted by staff or vendors.” However, beginning in FY 2024-2025, they were told to report “telephonic language services,” including both OTP interpreting interactions and “in-language services provided by bilingual staff.” This change was also made for in-person interpreting.
The number of written materials translated by city departments was also at a “record high” in FY 2024-2025, increasing 60% year-on-year and 160% versus a five-year average.
The report notes that the June 2024 amendment to the LAO expressly increased the amount of material city departments are required to translate. For example, departments are now required to translate certain digital content, such as public service announcements released via their websites or social media posts.
The text also states that the jump in translation could be partially explained by departments adding Vietnamese translations to their offerings as they prepare for Vietnamese to join the list of required languages in 2026.
A Changing Landscape
While the report includes several caveats explaining the massive change in year-on-year language services in San Francisco, the relative distribution of services by language in each fiscal year may reveal more meaningful differences.
For example, based on data provided in the city’s online dashboard, Spanish lost its position as the most represented language with only about 27.6% of total LEP client interactions in 2024-2025 compared to 48.9% in the previous fiscal year. Instead, for the first time since FY 2019-2020, Cantonese represented the largest portion of reported LEP client interactions at about 29.5% of the total.
Filipino and Mandarin also boomed in FY 2024-2025, representing 15.2% and 19.1% of total LEP client interactions, respectively, compared to just 0.9% and 2.7% in 2023-2024.
Also, despite the overall increase in reported usage of language services, the number of LEP client interactions in Russian decreased by 57% year-on-year, and in-person interpreting in Russian decreased by 46% compared to the previous year.