73% Favor Making English Official Language

Voters overwhelmingly favor legislation to make English the official language of the United States, following President Donald Trump’s recent executive order.

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and ProEnglish finds that 73% of Likely U.S. Voters would support a law that made English the official language of the U.S. government, including 54% who would Strongly Support such a law. Only 21% disagree, with 10% Strongly Opposed to making English the official language. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Trump’s executive order last week declared English the official language and repealed Executive Order 13166, issued by President Bill Clinton nearly 25 years ago. “The Clinton order discouraged assimilation of legal immigrants by mandating that that the federal government and its agencies provide expensive translation services in any foreign language," said Stephanie White, acting executive director of Washington-based ProEnglish. "These additional translation costs have run into billions of dollars since 2001. But this ends now.” 

Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters approve of Trump’s executive order, including 48% who Strongly Approve. Just 28% disapprove, including 18% who Strongly Disapprove.

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The survey of 1,059 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on March 10-11, 2025 by Rasmussen Reports and ProEnglish. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Majorities of every political category – 93% of Republicans, 61% of Democrats and 63% of voters not affiliated with either major party – would support a law that made English the official language of the U.S. government.

There is more partisan variation in terms of approval of Trump’s recent executive order, with 90% of Republicans, 44% of Democrats and 60% of unaffiliated voters approving.

Among other findings of the Rasmussen Reports/ProEnglish survey:

– Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters think that, over time, America will become more English-speaking, while 20% believe the country will become less English-speaking. Forty-three percent (43%) expect is to stay about the same.

– Forty-four percent (44%) say election ballots and other official government documents should be printed in English only, while 48% believe such official documents should also be printed in other languages. While two-thirds of Republicans favor English-only ballots and official documents, the same percentage of Democrats say these documents should also be printed in other languages.

– Twenty-nine percent (29%) say English should become the primary official language of Puerto Rico, as part of any proposed Puerto Rico statehood bill, but 45% disagree and 26% are not sure.

– Support for a law making English the official language of the U.S. government crosses all demographic boundaries, with 72% of whites, 68% of black voters, 75% of Hispanics and 85% of other minorities supporting such a law.

– Thirty-seven percent (37%) of voters say Trump’s executive order on official English makes them more likely to support him, while 30% are less likely to support him, and another 30% say it does not make much difference. “The United States has never had an official, national language since its founding,” said ProEnglish’s White. “Under the Trump order, federal agencies can still provide services and documentation in other languages, but English must be stressed since current law requires U.S. citizens to be proficient in English. This latest poll indicates that a significant majority of voters of all backgrounds and political persuasions support English as our official language of government operations.”

She added: “Every American can be proud of their national origin, race, native language and customs. But without reinforcing the English tie that unites us, multilingual diversity could well become the undoing of our country.”

As Trump wages trade wars with Canada and China, nearly half of voters believe raising tariffs on imports would hurt America’s economy. 

March is Women’s History Month, and perhaps because of Kamala Harris’s defeat in last year’s election, voters are less confident that women’s leadership will increase – at least in the short term. 

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to the public as well as to Platinum Members.

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