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Oklahoma City, OK

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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 835,077 94.03% 911,717 90.44%
Spanish 24,382 2.75% 55,789 5.53%
Other Indo-European* 11,640 1.31% 13,817 1.37%
Asian Language** 12,451 1.40% 20,779 2.06%
Other 4,542 0.51% 5,958 0.59%
Total Population Age 5+ 888,092 100.00% 1,008,060 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 26,629 47.73%
Other Indo-European* 3,576 25.88%
Asian Language** 11,543 55.55%
Other Language 1,458 24.47%
Total 43,206 4.29%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 9,854 40.42%
Other Indo-European* 3,033 26.06%
Asian Language** 6,876 55.22%
Other Language 1,045 23.01%
Total 20,808 2.34%

* "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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