Translation Services in Sacramento, CA

Languages spoken in Sacramento

36.4% of Sacramento residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, and 14.8% speak English less than “very well.” Spanish leads, followed by Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese and Tagalog, including Filipino.

Language spoken at home	Residents	Speak English less than “very well”
Spanish	82,279	29,290
Other Indo-European languages	28,527	10,539
Other Asian and Pacific Island languages	25,412	11,213
Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese	15,846	9,643
Tagalog, including Filipino	8,362	3,012
Vietnamese	6,971	4,458
Russian, Polish, and other Slavic	6,217	3,660

Spanish 82,27929,290 speak English less than “very well”
Other Indo-European languages 28,52710,539 speak English less than “very well”
Other Asian and Pacific Island languages 25,41211,213 speak English less than “very well”
Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese 15,8469,643 speak English less than “very well”
Tagalog, including Filipino 8,3623,012 speak English less than “very well”
Vietnamese 6,9714,458 speak English less than “very well”
Russian, Polish, and other Slavic 6,2173,660 speak English less than “very well”

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates for Sacramento city (tables C16001, C16002, B05002, B05006) (opens in a new tab). Figures with a wide margin of error are not shown.

Where Sacramento residents born abroad come from

Countries of birth point to the languages behind the Census groups above, and to the documents (birth certificates, diplomas, court records) that arrive for translation.

Mexico30,087
Philippines9,279
India8,539
China, excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan8,458
Vietnam7,835
Laos6,084
Fiji5,306
Afghanistan4,414

Sacramento by the numbers

Residents: 528,706
Speak a language other than English at home: 181,297 36.4%
Speak English less than “very well”: 73,553 14.8%
Limited-English households: 13,288 6.6%
Born outside the U.S.: 118,160 22.3%

Language access rules in California

Court interpreter program: Judicial Council of California, Court Interpreters Program (CIP), part of the Language Access Services Program in the Center for Families, Children & the Courts, which oversees interpreter recruitment, testing, licensing, discipline, and cross-assignments and maintains the statewide Master List of certified and registered court interpreters.
Court-certified languages: The Bilingual Interpreting Examination for certification is given in Arabic, Eastern Armenian, Cantonese, Farsi, Filipino (Tagalog), Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese; interpreters in all other spoken languages qualify as registered court interpreters by passing a written exam and oral proficiency exams. The Master List carries more than 1,700 certified and registered interpreters.
The rule: Article I, section 14 of the California Constitution gives a person unable to understand English who is charged with a crime the right to an interpreter throughout the proceedings, and Evidence Code section 756 (AB 1657, effective January 1, 2015) authorizes courts to provide interpreters to all parties in civil matters regardless of income; the Judicial Council has certified and registered court interpreters since 1993 under Government Code section 68562 et seq.
Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act: Under Government Code section 7290 et seq., a state department must provide information in another language when 5 percent or more of the public it serves requests services in that language, through bilingual staff, interpreters, or translated documents and forms, and must file a language survey with CalHR by October 1 of every even-numbered year.
School notices in the home language: Education Code section 48985 requires a public school where 15 percent or more of students speak a single primary language other than English to send parental notifications in both English and that language; the California Department of Education notifies districts of the qualifying schools and languages by August 1 each year.
Language need: The Judicial Council reports more than 200 languages spoken in California, with 6.6 million residents age five and older (18.1 percent) speaking English less than "very well" under 2014-2018 American Community Survey estimates.
Refugee program: The California Department of Social Services Refugee Programs Bureau has statewide administrative responsibility for the Refugee Resettlement Program, whose benefits and services are delivered locally by county welfare departments and refugee service providers.

Sources

Language services in Sacramento

Detailed languages in Sacramento County, California

The Census Bureau publishes individual languages for counties, not for cities. These are the most-spoken languages other than English in Sacramento County, California.

Spanish215,232
Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese)43,660
Tagalog (incl. Filipino)33,998
Russian30,968
Punjabi24,189
Vietnamese22,519
Hmong21,661
Ukrainian or other Slavic languages20,758

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, ACS 2024 1-year, table B16001, Sacramento County, California.

Sacramento questions

What languages are spoken in Sacramento?

36.4% of Sacramento residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, and 14.8% speak English less than “very well.” Spanish leads, followed by Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese and Tagalog, including Filipino. The most common countries of birth among residents born abroad are Mexico, Philippines, and India.

How many Sacramento households have limited English?

13,288 of 200,321 households (6.6%), according to the Census Bureau: households in which no one age 14 or older speaks only English or speaks English “very well.” These are the households most likely to need an interpreter or translated documents.

How are court interpreters credentialed in California?

Judicial Council of California, Court Interpreters Program (CIP), part of the Language Access Services Program in the Center for Families, Children & the Courts, which oversees interpreter recruitment, testing, licensing, discipline, and cross-assignments and maintains the statewide Master List of certified and registered court interpreters. The Bilingual Interpreting Examination for certification is given in Arabic, Eastern Armenian, Cantonese, Farsi, Filipino (Tagalog), Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese; interpreters in all other spoken languages qualify as registered court interpreters by passing a written exam and oral proficiency exams. The Master List carries more than 1,700 certified and registered interpreters.

Do you provide on-site interpreters in Sacramento?

Yes. We schedule interpreters in person in Sacramento and across California, and by phone and video nationwide, in 250+ languages including Spanish and ASL. Book less common languages as early as you can.

Do you provide conference and meeting interpreters in Sacramento?

Yes. We staff conferences, conventions, trade shows, seminars, corporate training, and client meetings in Sacramento with simultaneous or consecutive interpreters. For simultaneous interpreting, our own technicians deliver, run, and strike the booths, transmitters, and receivers, shipped from our own inventory.