Albany, GA

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 99,798 96.59% 107,007 95.82%
Spanish 1,937 1.87% 2,647 2.37%
Other Indo-European* 1,048 1.01% 1,113 1.00%
Asian Language** 429 0.42% 746 0.67%
Other 112 0.11% 164 0.15%
Total Population Age 5+ 103,324 100.00% 111,677 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 966 36.49%
Other Indo-European* 311 27.94%
Asian Language** 380 50.94%
Other Language 20 12.20%
Total 1,677 1.50%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 700 36.14%
Other Indo-European* 425 40.55%
Asian Language** 192 44.76%
Other Language 26 23.21%
Total 1,343 1.30%

* "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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