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Jefferson 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 32,410 97.02% 37,945 95.94%
Spanish 355 1.06% 766 1.94%
Other Indo-European* 486 1.45% 546 1.38%
Asian Language** 112 0.34% 243 0.61%
Other 44 0.13% 52 0.13%
Total Population Age 5+ 33,407 100.00% 39,552 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 336 43.86%
Other Indo-European* 163 29.85%
Asian Language** 104 42.80%
Other Language 3 5.77%
Total 606 1.53%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 132 37.18%
Other Indo-European* 154 31.69%
Asian Language** 33 29.46%
Other Language 17 38.64%
Total 336 1.01%

* "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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