Language learning platform Preply has analyzed more than 1.5 million job ads to discover the highest-paid and most in-demand second languages in Phoenix and the rest of the US right now.

If you speak Portuguese you are in luck because employers in Phoenix are willing to pay a pretty penny for this skill. Portuguese is in fact the highest-paid second language in Phoenix at the moment with our analysis revealing companies offer up to $24K more than what they offer English speakers on average.

Key findings:

• Portuguese is the highest-paid foreign language in Phoenix with an average annual salary of $70K.
• The most in-demand language in Phoenix apart from English is Spanish with almost 2K job openings that require this language.
• Portuguese is the highest-paid foreign language in the US with an average annual salary of $76,862.
• Spanish is the most in-demand second language in the US apart from English.

Portuguese is the highest-paid foreign language in the Phoenix

• Portuguese is the highest-paid foreign language in Phoenix with an average annual salary of $70K.
• That is over $24K more than the average salary for English speakers in the city, according to our analysis. (Average salary for English speakers in Phoenix is $45,700)

The highest-paid foreign languages in Phoenix
Rank	Language	Average Salary
1	Portuguese	$69,979
2	Spanish	$56,429
3	Arabic	$38,560
4	French	$58,329
5	Mandarin	$36,229

Spanish is the most in-demand second language in Phoenix

• Spanish is the most sought-after foreign language by companies in Phoenix, with 3 times more open positions than French speakers.

The most in-demand foreign languages in Phoenix
Rank	Language	Number of open roles
1	Spanish	1,719
2	French	563
3	Mandarin	178
4	German	138
5	Japanese	93

Portuguese is the highest-paid foreign language in the US

• Portuguese is the highest-paid foreign language in the US with an average annual salary of $77K.
• Portuguese isn’t a widely spoken language in the US though, with only 0.2% of the population speaking this foreign language.
• In second place is Bengali ($65K) and in third is Swedish ($63K). Neither language is commonly spoken in the US.

The highest-paid foreign languages in the US
Rank	Language	Average Salary
1	Portuguese	$76,862
2	Bengali	$65,472
3	Swedish	$63,180
4	Urdu	$62,192
5	German	$55,605
6	Japanese	$53,348
7	Spanish	$50,513
8	Arabic	$49,759
9	Hindi	$49,669
10	Danish	$48,047
11	Italian	$47,194
12	French	$45,569
13	English	$45,260

Spanish-speaking candidates are the most sought-after by companies in the US

• Spanish, which is the most frequently spoken language other than English in the country, is also the most in-demand second language in the US.
• In fact, there are more job ads for Spanish speakers (179K) than for all other languages combined (102K) in the top 10 in the country.
• French and German are in second and third place respectively. Mandarin, with at least 3 million speakers in US, ranked in 4th place.

The most in-demand foreign languages by US employers
Rank	Language	Number of open roles
1	Spanish	179,162
2	French	26,004
3	German	22,722
4	Mandarin	16,337
5	Swedish	10,489
6	Arabic	5,762
7	Portuguese	5,263
8	Russian	5,132
9	Japanese	5,077
10	Italian	4,873

Methodology:

• Data was sourced from the online job search engine Adzuna from which we analyzed job ads that demanded a second language.
• Starting with a seed list of over 100 cities in 16 different countries worldwide, we searched for job ads mentioning different languages (e.g. the words ‘German’ or ‘French’) within the job title or job description, for each location.
• Our study was calculated in GPB and then converted into US Dollars on 6/03/2023 with Google Currency Converter (1 Pound sterling = 1.20 US).