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Minnehaha 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 109,583 96.14% 128,234 93.32%
Spanish 960 0.84% 3,136 2.28%
Other Indo-European* 2,527 2.22% 3,315 2.41%
Asian Language** 521 0.46% 1,098 0.80%
Other 387 0.34% 1,633 1.19%
Total Population Age 5+ 113,978 100.00% 137,416 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,598 50.96%
Other Indo-European* 1,408 42.47%
Asian Language** 576 52.46%
Other Language 687 42.07%
Total 4,269 3.11%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 235 24.48%
Other Indo-European* 662 26.20%
Asian Language** 265 50.86%
Other Language 253 65.37%
Total 1,415 1.24%

* "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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