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Benzie 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 11,085 97.65% 14,470 96.08%
Spanish 114 1.00% 283 1.88%
Other Indo-European* 116 1.02% 241 1.60%
Asian Language** 26 0.23% 2 0.01%
Other 11 0.10% 65 0.43%
Total Population Age 5+ 11,352 100.00% 15,061 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 112 39.58%
Other Indo-European* 65 26.97%
Asian Language** 0 0.00%
Other Language 16 24.62%
Total 193 1.28%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 37 32.46%
Other Indo-European* 21 18.10%
Asian Language** 4 15.38%
Other Language 4 36.36%
Total 66 0.58%

* "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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