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Charleston-North Charleston, SC

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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 442,320 95.37% 481,665 93.99%
Spanish 8,496 1.83% 14,649 2.86%
Other Indo-European* 8,691 1.87% 10,018 1.95%
Asian Language** 3,620 0.78% 5,170 1.01%
Other 647 0.14% 974 0.19%
Total Population Age 5+ 463,774 100.00% 512,476 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 6,136 41.89%
Other Indo-European* 2,299 22.95%
Asian Language** 2,435 47.10%
Other Language 343 35.22%
Total 11,213 2.19%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 2,910 34.25%
Other Indo-European* 2,270 26.12%
Asian Language** 1,491 41.19%
Other Language 156 24.11%
Total 6,827 1.47%

* "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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