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Bergen 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 599,146 77.12% 560,343 67.56%
Spanish 42,204 5.43% 79,959 9.64%
Other Indo-European* 87,968 11.32% 103,329 12.46%
Asian Language** 38,512 4.96% 70,421 8.49%
Other 9,034 1.16% 15,403 1.86%
Total Population Age 5+ 776,864 100.00% 829,455 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 34,640 43.32%
Other Indo-European* 38,489 37.25%
Asian Language** 36,902 52.40%
Other Language 4,173 27.09%
Total 114,204 13.77%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 17,691 41.92%
Other Indo-European* 30,322 34.47%
Asian Language** 22,316 57.95%
Other Language 2,729 30.21%
Total 73,058 9.40%

* "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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