NEW YORK – Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Sideya Sherman on July 6 announced the launch of NYC Language Explorer, a new interactive web tool that makes it easier to understand what languages New Yorkers speak at the citywide, borough, and local levels.

NYC Language Explorer presents intuitive tables, maps and charts on the languages spoken by New Yorkers with limited English proficiency, using high-quality, reliable language data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Offering detailed information on the most commonly spoken languages at the citywide, borough and Community District levels, as well as statistics for additional language groups, the tool provides a powerful new way to examine the city’s rich linguistic diversity and better understand local language service needs.

“New York City is home to hundreds of languages, and that diversity is central to who we are,” said DCP Director Sideya Sherman. “NYC Language Explorer gives agencies, service providers, community organizations and New Yorkers an accessible way to better understand the languages spoken in our neighborhoods. By putting this data at people’s fingertips, we can help support more responsive planning, outreach and services across the five boroughs.”

“New York City is a multilingual city, and NYC Language Explorer serves as another example of this administration’s commitment to language justice,” said Commissioner Faiza N. Ali of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. “The Language Explorer tool makes language data accessible and actionable, helping City agencies and community-based organizations to move beyond assumption-based decisions and towards evidence-based planning so that critical services and information can reach all New Yorkers. We thank our partners at DCP for developing this resource to strengthen language access across our diverse city and empower even more New Yorkers with the tools they need to thrive.”

Specifically, NYC Language Explorer will help city agencies, non-profit service providers, researchers, advocates and community organizations understand local language needs and provide more useful, accessible services.

The tool also offers a wide range of insights into the languages spoken by New Yorkers. Among the findings available through NYC Language Explorer: Across the city, there are roughly 1.8 million residents with limited English proficiency (LEP); The Bronx has the highest percentage of residents who speak a language other than English, at 58 percent; and Spanish is the most spoken LEP language in every borough, except for Staten Island where it is Chinese.

The NYC Language Explorer findings also highlight that Greek speakers in NYC number over 35,000 and of those, 70% are proficient in English while only 30% have LEP. The borough of Queens has the most Greek speakers, over 21,000 with Queens Community District 1, which includes the neighborhoods of Astoria, Long Island City, and Ditmars, having the highest number of Greek speakers in the city. Queens Community Districts 7 and 11 which include the neighborhoods of Flushing, College Point, Beechhurst, Whitestone, Malba, Bay Terrace, and Bayside, Douglaston-Little Neck, and Auburdale, respectively, are second and third in the number of Greek speakers.

The findings on Greek in NYC can be viewed online: https://shorturl.at/CP6ag.

NYC Language Explorer is part of DCP’s broader commitment to making demographic data accessible, useful and easy to understand, including through core tools for exploring New York City’s diverse socioeconomic landscape: Population FactFinder and Population MapViewer. The release also follows the recent publication of DCP’s Newest New Yorkers report, which provides a comprehensive portrait of the city’s foreign-born residents.