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Tama County

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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 15,055 92.48% 15,478 91.83%
Spanish 176 1.08% 587 3.48%
Other Indo-European* 468 2.87% 296 1.76%
Asian Language** 59 0.36% 60 0.36%
Other 522 3.21% 434 2.57%
Total Population Age 5+ 16,280 100.00% 16,855 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 210 35.78%
Other Indo-European* 81 27.36%
Asian Language** 22 36.67%
Other Language 100 23.04%
Total 413 2.45%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 57 32.39%
Other Indo-European* 122 26.07%
Asian Language** 21 35.59%
Other Language 146 27.97%
Total 346 2.13%

* "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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