---
language:
- en
pretty_name: Primary language spoken by the Medicaid and CHIP population
tags:
- hhs
- cms
- chip
- demographics
- medicaid
---

# Primary language spoken by the Medicaid and CHIP population

## Description

This data set includes annual counts and percentages of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollees by primary language spoken (English, Spanish, and all other languages). Results are shown overall; by state; and by five subpopulation topics: race and ethnicity, age group, scope of Medicaid and CHIP benefits, urban or rural residence, and eligibility category.
These results were generated using Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Analytic Files (TAF) Release 1 data and the Race/Ethnicity Imputation Companion File. This data set includes Medicaid and CHIP enrollees in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands who were enrolled for at least one day in the calendar year, except where otherwise noted. Enrollees in Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and select states with data quality issues with the primary language variable in TAF are not included. Results shown for the race and ethnicity subpopulation topic exclude enrollees in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Results shown overall (where subpopulation topic is "Total enrollees") exclude enrollees younger than age 5 and enrollees in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Results for states with TAF data quality issues in the year have a value of "Unusable data." Some rows in the data set have a value of "DS," which indicates that data were suppressed according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Cell Suppression Policy for values between 1 and 10.
This data set is based on the brief: "Primary language spoken by the Medicaid and CHIP population in 2020." Enrollees are assigned to a primary language category based on their reported ISO language code in TAF (English/missing, Spanish, and all other language codes) (Primary Language). Enrollees are assigned to a race and ethnicity subpopulation using the state-reported race and ethnicity information in TAF when it is available and of good quality; if it is missing or unreliable, race and ethnicity is indirectly estimated using an enhanced version of Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding (BISG) (Race and ethnicity of the national Medicaid and CHIP population in 2020). Enrollees are assigned to an age group subpopulation using age as of December 31st of the calendar year. Enrollees are assigned to the comprehensive benefits or limited benefits subpopulation according to the criteria in the "Identifying Beneficiaries with Full-Scope, Comprehensive, and Limited Benefits in the TAF" DQ Atlas brief. Enrollees are assigned to an urban or rural subpopulation based on the 2010 Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) code associated with their home or mailing address ZIP code in TAF (Rural Medicaid and CHIP enrollees in 2020). Enrollees are assigned to an eligibility category subpopulation using their latest reported eligibility group code, CHIP code, and age in the calendar year. Please refer to the full brief for additional context about the methodology and detailed findings. Future updates to this data set will include more recent data years as the TAF data become available.

## Dataset Details

- **Publisher**: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- **Last Modified**: 2025-01-18
- **Contact**: Medicaid.gov (Medicaid.gov@cms.hhs.gov)

## Source

Original data can be found at: https://healthdata.gov/d/4bph-u9pm

## Usage

You can load this dataset using:

```python
from datasets import load_dataset
 dataset = load_dataset('HHS-Official/primary-language-spoken-by-the-medicaid-and-chip-p')
```
## License

This dataset is licensed under http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/