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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 632,813 77.37% 615,323 71.58%
Spanish 71,595 8.75% 123,616 14.38%
Other Indo-European* 85,504 10.45% 84,695 9.85%
Asian Language** 20,768 2.54% 26,176 3.04%
Other 7,180 0.88% 9,852 1.15%
Total Population Age 5+ 817,860 100.00% 859,662 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 63,724 51.55%
Other Indo-European* 27,907 32.95%
Asian Language** 12,058 46.07%
Other Language 2,367 24.03%
Total 106,056 12.34%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 35,863 50.09%
Other Indo-European* 29,523 34.53%
Asian Language** 10,863 52.31%
Other Language 2,029 28.26%
Total 78,278 9.57%

* "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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