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Lewiston-Auburn, ME

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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 75,950 77.92% 81,607 83.58%
Spanish 413 0.42% 801 0.82%
Other Indo-European* 20,720 21.26% 14,900 15.26%
Asian Language** 290 0.30% 299 0.31%
Other 105 0.11% 36 0.04%
Total Population Age 5+ 97,478 100.00% 97,643 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 290 36.20%
Other Indo-European* 3,632 24.38%
Asian Language** 83 27.76%
Other Language 5 13.89%
Total 4,010 4.11%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 109 26.39%
Other Indo-European* 5,803 28.01%
Asian Language** 162 55.86%
Other Language 4 3.81%
Total 6,078 6.24%

* "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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