Barnes County

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 11,152 95.02% 10,792 96.77%
Spanish 85 0.72% 87 0.78%
Other Indo-European* 469 4.00% 251 2.25%
Asian Language** 20 0.17% 9 0.08%
Other 10 0.09% 13 0.12%
Total Population Age 5+ 11,736 100.00% 11,152 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 25 28.74%
Other Indo-European* 72 28.69%
Asian Language** 2 22.22%
Other Language 0 0.00%
Total 99 0.89%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 22 25.88%
Other Indo-European* 124 26.44%
Asian Language** 16 80.00%
Other Language 5 50.00%
Total 167 1.42%

* "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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