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Cape Girardeau 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 55,386 96.30% 62,540 96.69%
Spanish 692 1.20% 784 1.21%
Other Indo-European* 1,067 1.86% 1,079 1.67%
Asian Language** 359 0.62% 232 0.36%
Other 12 0.02% 43 0.07%
Total Population Age 5+ 57,516 100.00% 64,678 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 235 29.97%
Other Indo-European* 227 21.04%
Asian Language** 105 45.26%
Other Language 6 13.95%
Total 573 0.89%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 232 33.53%
Other Indo-European* 310 29.05%
Asian Language** 204 56.82%
Other Language 12 100.00%
Total 758 1.32%

* "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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