England
There are more than a million pupils in English schools who speak languages in addition to English. Information from the January 2012 School Census indicates there are 18 languages which are spoken by more than 10,000 pupils.
The most spoken language are shown below. The figures provided here show a number of language variants grouped together in order to provide a comparison with the 2008 published figures. The figures are not directly comparable as the 2008 figures did not include pupils in special schools.
| 2012 | | | | 2008 | | |
| English | 5,570,335 | 84.1 | | English | 5,711,110 | 87.2 |
| Panjabi | 116,350 | 1.7 | | Panjabi | 102,570 | 1.6 |
| Urdu | 109,215 | 1.6 | | Urdu | 85,250 | 1.3 |
| Bengali | 87,945 | 1.3 | | Bengali | 70,320 | 1.1 |
| Polish | 53,915 | 0.8 | | Polish | 26,840 | 0.4 |
| Somali | 42,215 | 0.6 | | Somali | 32,030 | 0.5 |
| Gujarati | 40,490 | 0.6 | | Gujarati | 40,880 | 0.6 |
| Arabic | 39,135 | 0.6 | | Arabic | 25,800 | 0.4 |
| Portuguese | 24,305 | 0.4 | | Portuguese | 16,560 | 0.3 |
| Tamil | 24,605 | 0.4 | | Tamil | 15,460 | 0.2 |
| French | 22,415 | 0.3 | | French | 15,310 | 0.2 |
| Turkish | 20,490 | 0.3 | | Turkish | 16,460 | 0.3 |
| Chinese | 17,275 | 0.3 | | Chinese | 13,380 | 0.2 |
| Yoruba | 15,765 | 0.2 | | Yoruba | 13,920 | 0.2 |
| Spanish | 14,525 | 0.2 | | Spanish | 10,000 | 0.2 |
| Pashto/Pakhto | 12,035 | 0.2 | | Pashto/Pakhto | 7,090 | 0.1 |
| Lithuanian | 11,275 | 0.2 | | Lithuanian | 4,350 | 0.1 |
| Albanian/Shqip | 11,425 | 0.2 | | Albanian/Shqip | 8,350 | 0.1 |
From January 2007, where a pupil's first language is not English, schools were asked to record the actual language into a coding system which consists of over 300 language categories. However, it was not compulsory for schools to provide this level of detail and not all schools have chosen to use the extended language codes. In 2008, language data were received for almost 79 per cent of pupils whose first language was other than English.
The full details of the numbers of school aged speakers of nearly 300 languages in 2008 and 2011 are available to download in the links to the right.
Scotland
Data from the results of the 2011 annual pupil census in publicly funded schools in Scotland indicate the top 5 home languages were Polish, Urdu, Panjabi, Arabic, Scots and Cantonese. A total of 138 languages were spoken as the main home language by pupils in publicly funded schools in Scotland. 32,266 pupils were identified whose main home language was neither English, Gaelic, Scots, Doric nor Sign Language. The greatest number of these pupils attend schools in Glasgow.
Data source
Languages Table 1.14
Local Authority language tables
Northern Ireland
The 2011 annual pupil census in Northern Ireland recorded 8418 'newcomer' pupils (2.6 percent) compared to a figure of 1,366 in 2001/2 (0.4 percent).
Data source
Newcomer Pupils (2001/02 - 2011/12) Department of Education, Northern Ireland
Wales
In 2010/11, there are 22,930 (5.8 percent) of primary and secondary pupils in Wales acquiring English as an additional language.
Data source
Table 1.22 School Census in Wales, 2011
United Kingdom
CILT Community Languages Report (CILT, 2005) brought together bilingual pupil statistics across the UK and through survey evidence identified 11,000 children In Scotland speaking at least 104 languages; 8,000 children in Wales speaking at least 98 languages; and 702,000 children in England speaking at least 300 languages
