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Chicago, IL

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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 5,492,493 80.28% 5,631,315 73.53%
Spanish 672,365 9.83% 1,155,221 15.08%
Other Indo-European* 483,581 7.07% 579,351 7.56%
Asian Language** 147,299 2.15% 221,402 2.89%
Other 46,044 0.67% 71,222 0.93%
Total Population Age 5+ 6,841,782 100.00% 7,658,511 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 624,670 54.07%
Other Indo-European* 237,723 41.03%
Asian Language** 98,929 44.68%
Other Language 22,481 31.56%
Total 983,803 12.85%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 347,807 51.73%
Other Indo-European* 175,519 36.30%
Asian Language** 70,985 48.19%
Other Language 14,968 32.51%
Total 609,279 8.91%

* "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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