Translation Services in Philadelphia, PA

Languages spoken in Philadelphia

24.4% of Philadelphia residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, and 11.5% speak English less than “very well.” Spanish leads, followed by Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese and Russian, Polish, and other Slavic.

Language spoken at home	Residents	Speak English less than “very well”
Spanish	161,231	69,768
Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese	36,895	25,228
Other Indo-European languages	36,076	15,464
Russian, Polish, and other Slavic	24,221	15,259
Other Asian and Pacific Island languages	22,961	13,020
Other languages	20,867	6,326
French, Haitian Creole, or Cajun	19,874	8,021

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

Philadelphia by the numbers

Residents: 1,579,706
Speak a language other than English at home: 362,262 24.4%
Speak English less than “very well”: 171,192 11.5%
Limited-English households: 48,520 7.1%
Born outside the U.S.: 239,646 15.2%

Detailed languages in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

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

Spanish163,503
Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese)38,444
Russian16,290
Vietnamese15,479
Haitian14,650
French (incl. Cajun)9,941
Portuguese8,510
Yoruba, Twi, Igbo, or other languages of Western Africa8,493

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

Language access rules in Pennsylvania

Court interpreter program: Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) Interpreter Program, whose Interpreter Certification Program (ICP) tests court interpreters; under 204 Pa. Code Chapter 221, the Court Administrator maintains the roster of certified and otherwise qualified interpreters.
Court-certified languages: The ICP offers full oral certification exams in Amharic, Arabic (Egyptian and Levantine), Cantonese, Filipino (Tagalog), French, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese, and abbreviated exams in Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian and Turkish; candidates who miss certification but score 55 percent or higher on the sight and consecutive parts are rostered as conditionally approved. Interpreters in languages without an oral exam can be rostered as otherwise qualified (registered) after passing an oral proficiency interview at the superior level, and sign language and deaf interpreters form a separate category.
The rule: 42 Pa.C.S. § 4412 requires the presiding judicial officer to appoint a certified interpreter when a principal party in interest or witness has limited ability to speak or understand English, and an otherwise qualified interpreter only when a good-faith effort shows no certified interpreter is reasonably available; under 204 Pa. Code § 221.107 the county of the court or the appellate court with jurisdiction pays the interpreter, and the cost is never the responsibility of the LEP person.
Court language access regulations: 204 Pa. Code Chapter 221, effective January 1, 2022, governs interpreters for limited English proficient and deaf or hard of hearing people in all Unified Judicial System court proceedings and says judges should appoint a team of interpreters for proceedings expected to last longer than two hours, capital cases, and cases involving complex subject matter and expert witnesses.
Sign language interpreter registration: The Sign Language Interpreter and Transliterator State Registration Act (Act 57 of 2004, amended by Act 143 of 2024) requires state registration of individuals who provide sign language interpreting or transliterating services to people who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing, and the Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the Department of Labor and Industry handles registration.
State agency language access program: Announced August 1, 2025, the Office of Administration's Language Access Management Program assists agencies under the Governor's jurisdiction, and its program manager will guide state agencies in developing language access plans; the Department of General Services issued a Language Services Invitation to Qualify to build a pool of vendors for in-person and remote interpretation, document translation, and ASL interpretation for Commonwealth agencies.
Language demand: The Shapiro Administration reports, citing U.S. Census Bureau data, that about 1.7 million Pennsylvanians speak a language other than English at home, and it reports the state's Hispanic population grew nearly 18 percent and its Asian population 16 percent from 2020 to 2024.
Refugee resettlement: The Pennsylvania Refugee Resettlement Program is funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, overseen by the Department of Human Services, and run by a state refugee coordinator designated by the Secretary of Human Services.
Regional resettlement providers: The Department of Human Services lists regional refugee support service providers for Allentown/Scranton, Pittsburgh, Erie, Harrisburg/Lancaster, and Philadelphia.

Sources

Where Philadelphia 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.

China, excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan25,529
Dominican Republic21,066
Vietnam13,499
India12,814
Haiti8,914
Jamaica8,667
Brazil8,350
Ukraine7,371

Language services in Philadelphia

Philadelphia questions

What languages are spoken in Philadelphia?

24.4% of Philadelphia residents age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, and 11.5% speak English less than “very well.” Spanish leads, followed by Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese and Russian, Polish, and other Slavic. The most common countries of birth among residents born abroad are China, excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan, Dominican Republic, and Vietnam.

How many Philadelphia households have limited English?

48,520 of 679,428 households (7.1%), 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 Pennsylvania?

Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) Interpreter Program, whose Interpreter Certification Program (ICP) tests court interpreters; under 204 Pa. Code Chapter 221, the Court Administrator maintains the roster of certified and otherwise qualified interpreters. The ICP offers full oral certification exams in Amharic, Arabic (Egyptian and Levantine), Cantonese, Filipino (Tagalog), French, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese, and abbreviated exams in Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian and Turkish; candidates who miss certification but score 55 percent or higher on the sight and consecutive parts are rostered as conditionally approved. Interpreters in languages without an oral exam can be rostered as otherwise qualified (registered) after passing an oral proficiency interview at the superior level, and sign language and deaf interpreters form a separate category.

Do you provide on-site interpreters in Philadelphia?

Yes. We schedule interpreters in person in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania, 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 Philadelphia?

Yes. We staff conferences, conventions, trade shows, seminars, corporate training, and client meetings in Philadelphia 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.