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Champaign-Urbana, IL

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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 146,641 90.97% 149,387 88.24%
Spanish 3,174 1.97% 4,913 2.90%
Other Indo-European* 5,227 3.24% 5,817 3.44%
Asian Language** 5,286 3.28% 7,994 4.72%
Other 875 0.54% 1,190 0.70%
Total Population Age 5+ 161,203 100.00% 169,301 100.00%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 2000
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 1,807 36.78%
Other Indo-European* 1,116 19.19%
Asian Language** 3,470 43.41%
Other Language 400 33.61%
Total 6,793 4.01%

Population Speaking English Less Than "Very Well" in 1990
Language Spoken at Home: Number Percent
Spanish 889 28.01%
Other Indo-European* 925 17.70%
Asian Language** 2,436 46.08%
Other Language 166 18.97%
Total 4,416 2.74%

* "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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