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Indianapolis, IN

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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 1,228,518 96.28% 1,404,217 94.39%
Spanish 17,506 1.37% 43,289 2.91%
Other Indo-European* 21,862 1.71% 24,236 1.63%
Asian Language** 6,280 0.49% 11,550 0.78%
Other 1,779 0.14% 4,441 0.30%
Total Population Age 5+ 1,275,945 100.00% 1,487,733 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 21,040 48.60%
Other Indo-European* 6,960 28.72%
Asian Language** 5,587 48.37%
Other Language 1,166 26.26%
Total 34,753 2.34%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 6,037 34.49%
Other Indo-European* 6,442 29.47%
Asian Language** 2,839 45.21%
Other Language 540 30.35%
Total 15,858 1.24%

* "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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