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Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI |
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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 | 2,194,564 | 94.05% | 2,476,998 | 89.83% |
| Spanish | 26,753 | 1.15% | 88,025 | 3.19% |
| Other Indo-European* | 60,545 | 2.59% | 70,739 | 2.57% |
| Asian Language** | 41,507 | 1.78% | 89,961 | 3.26% |
| Other | 10,067 | 0.43% | 31,672 | 1.15% |
| Total Population Age 5+ | 2,333,436 | 100.00% | 2,757,395 | 100.00% |
| Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000 | ||
| Language Spoken at Home: | Number | Percent |
| Spanish | 42,351 | 48.11% |
| Other Indo-European* | 20,496 | 28.97% |
| Asian Language** | 50,902 | 56.58% |
| Other Language | 13,467 | 42.52% |
| Total | 127,216 | 4.61% |
| Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990 | ||
| Language Spoken at Home: | Number | Percent |
| Spanish | 8,833 | 33.02% |
| Other Indo-European* | 16,003 | 26.43% |
| Asian Language** | 26,514 | 63.88% |
| Other Language | 2,497 | 24.80% |
| Total | 53,847 | 2.31% |
* "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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