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Marion 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 188,890 89.27% 211,454 80.46%
Spanish 13,509 6.38% 38,841 14.78%
Other Indo-European* 6,006 2.84% 7,518 2.86%
Asian Language** 2,746 1.30% 4,203 1.60%
Other 439 0.21% 778 0.30%
Total Population Age 5+ 211,590 100.00% 262,794 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 23,315 60.03%
Other Indo-European* 3,178 42.27%
Asian Language** 2,303 54.79%
Other Language 301 38.69%
Total 29,097 11.07%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 6,513 48.21%
Other Indo-European* 2,265 37.71%
Asian Language** 1,497 54.52%
Other Language 152 34.62%
Total 10,427 4.93%

* "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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