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Boise City, ID

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LANGUAGE

The Census asks questions about language use at home to locate groups of people who speak a language other than English. Their isolation or integration into a primarily English speaking community can be determined by their ability to speak English proficiently.

Language Spoken at Home, 1990-2000
1990 2000
Number Percent Number Percent
Only English 254,331 93.27% 354,567 89.22%
Spanish 11,686 4.29% 28,934 7.28%
Other Indo-European* 3,905 1.43% 8,357 2.10%
Asian Language** 1,813 0.66% 4,271 1.07%
Other 944 0.35% 1,292 0.33%
Total Population Age 5+ 272,679 100.00% 397,421 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 12,664 43.77%
Other Indo-European* 3,012 36.04%
Asian Language** 2,031 47.55%
Other Language 377 29.18%
Total 18,084 4.55%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 4,713 40.33%
Other Indo-European* 1,065 27.27%
Asian Language** 888 48.98%
Other Language 291 30.83%
Total 6,957 2.55%

* "Other Indo-European" excludes English and Spanish. "Indo-European" is not synonymous with "European." French, German, Hindi, and Persian are all classified as Indo-European. Hungarian, on the other hand, is lumped into "Other Language."

** "Asian Language" includes languages indigenous to Asia and Pacific islands areas that are not also Indo-European languages. Chinese, Japanese, Telugu, and Hawaiian are all classified here.

Also note that ability to speak English "very well" is based on the self-assessment of those responding to Census questions, not on a test of language ability.

Source: Census 2000 analyzed by the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN).

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