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Lackawanna 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 192,299 93.43% 190,894 94.40%
Spanish 1,317 0.64% 3,156 1.56%
Other Indo-European* 11,211 5.45% 6,955 3.44%
Asian Language** 679 0.33% 800 0.40%
Other 314 0.15% 405 0.20%
Total Population Age 5+ 205,820 100.00% 202,210 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,085 34.38%
Other Indo-European* 1,924 27.66%
Asian Language** 434 54.25%
Other Language 111 27.41%
Total 3,554 1.76%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 432 32.80%
Other Indo-European* 2,976 26.55%
Asian Language** 370 54.49%
Other Language 65 20.70%
Total 3,843 1.87%

* "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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